The Green Giant

After marrying Maria, Schwarzenegger soaked up even more environmental activism from her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted environmental lawyer. When Schwarzenegger first ran for office during the 2003 election to recall California Gov. Gray Davis, Kennedy recommended his friend Terry Tamminen, a well-known ocean advocate from Santa Monica, as the campaign's environmental adviser. Tamminen helped the novice candidate craft an environmental-action plan, which included generous subsidies for hydrogen and solar power, as well as the establishment of huge nature conservancies in the Sierras and a ban on offshore drilling. At a campaign event on an ocean bluff near Santa Barbara designed to roll out his green credentials, Schwarzenegger was trailed by protesters. "I was known as the Hummer guy," he says. "The environmentalists were saying, 'You're full of crap. You're not going in there to clean up the environment. You're going in there to kiss up to the oil companies.' And then we start producing legislation and they say, 'Whoa! I was wrong'."

By the time he ran for re-election last year, Schwarzenegger was confident enough to wrap himself in green. He toured the state in a green bus, plastered with a giant mural of Yosemite National Park. And he embraced California's new greenhouse-gas law as the centerpiece of his campaign, to the annoyance of some Democrats who wondered how Arnold had managed to hijack their signature legislative accomplishment. That was before Schwarzenegger won in a landslide, defeating a Democratic opponent who'd been labeled a polluter during his days as a real-estate developer. Now, in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger's second term is overseen by a Democratic chief of staff, and he goes out of his way to praise and consult Democratic lawmakers. The jousting over who gets credit for California's environmental achievements has given way to good-natured ribbing. "It takes a movie star and, hey, I used to be a middle-school teacher," says Pavley, the Democratic lawmaker recognized for authoring some of California's most far-reaching environmental laws, including the Global Warming Solutions Act, as well as a first-in-the-nation 2002 law restricting tailpipe emissions, which was upheld last week by the Supreme Court ruling.

While traditional environmentalists cut Schwarzenegger plenty of slack for his marketing antics, there is concern that his approach places too little emphasis on the need for Americans to reform their consumption habits, from running their air conditioners around the clock to driving (yes) their SUVs. "He likes to give the impression that you can have it all," says Bill Magavern, a Sierra Club representative in Sacramento. "He is overly optimistic about the ability of the market to solve our problems." After all, California's experiment with electricity deregulation was a disaster, as anyone who lived through a "rolling blackout" can attest. And in Europe, the fledgling carbon-trading market has been subject to wild price swings, because emissions credits were given away too freely, thus making them almost worthless. Schwarzenegger has dispatched squads of aides across the Atlantic, to make sure the mistakes are not repeated in California.

Schwarzenegger may have good credentials with the global-warming crowd, but there are still bones to pick. Last year the California League of Conservation Voters endorsed Schwarzenegger's Democratic opponent, saying the governor didn't support enough legislation favored by environmentalists and that he appointed industry-friendly members to California's environmental regulatory commissions. Last year Arnold refused to support a ballot initiative that would have imposed a wellhead tax on oil companies to fund alternative-energy development. Schwarzenegger said he opposed the measure because it involved a tax. "One of the constraints in his policy is that he's very conservative in how to pay for it," says the Sierra Club's Magavern.

Others worry that the market-solves-all approach will make consumers and businesses overly reliant on "carbon offsets" that basically amount to a guilt tax on purchases that affect the environment—say, a new car purchase, or an airline trip. Buyers "offset" their greenhouse-gas emissions by donating money to a reforestation project or an alternative-energy investment. (Schwarzenegger recently announced that he now purchases carbon offsets for his weekly commutes by private jet from his home in Los Angeles to the capitol in Sacramento.) The legislature's goal, says Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, is to reduce California's overall "carbon footprint," not just to create a new pollution credit market. While some offsets are legitimate, others amount to mere "greenwashing" that allows consumers to assuage their carbon-stained consciences, without tightening their belts.

His swaggering style isn't for everyone, especially at a time when Americans, finally, seem willing to examine the inconvenient truth—and to make sacrifices for the cause. But, as Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain noted during a recent campaign swing, where he took time to appear at the Port of Long Beach and praise Schwarzenegger's low-carbon-fuel standard (endorsement, anyone?), California under Arnold is the "800-pound gorilla" of American environmental policy. And who's gonna make it ride in one of those wimpy, feminine little cars?

© 2007