| While Arnold Schwarzenegger did a good job of greenwashing himself on 60 Minutes, if you delve a little deeper, you find a more complete picture. Namely, that Arnold is using disaster capitalism to systematically destroy the nation's best environmental regulation scheme. During a time when we are facing extraordinary environmental challenges, California is going in the wrong direction.
This is typified by comments like the ones he made yesterday: (emphasis mine)
But because there are so many stakeholders behind the legislative leaders, and everybody pulling on them saying, don't give in on CEQA, and don't give in on environmental issues and don't give in on cuts and don't give in on that, it makes it very difficult for them. (SacBee 12/23/08)
You can read "stakeholders" to mean "special interest" in Arnold-speak there. However, I think the term stakeholder is particularly telling here. After all, who are the stakeholders in a clean environment. Arnold will tell you it is the environmentalists, like the Sierra Club. However, that's taking a pretty darn cynical view.
The stakeholders in the environment are the future generations of Californians. The future residents of Sacramento that will be flooded from their homes as sea levels rise. Our children who no longer get to see the bevy of wildlife that once existed in California. Our future fisherman who can no longer catch salmon. Our future farmers who no longer have drinkable water for their livestock, and clean water to irrigate.
These are the stakeholders that Arnold is complaining about having too much sway over the Democrats. Apparently, long-term planning is inconvenient for the Republicans in their grab what you can now frenzy. It's the same logic that caused the current economic mess with the foreclosure situation, and it will only push off the inevitable pain. It's short range thinking with no care for the future.
Now, excuse me while I go outdoors and ponder the stakeholders of my local park. |
