News Advisory
THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA http://www.cagreens.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Contact: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524 sking [at] cagreens.org


Daniel Brezenoff, spokesperson, 310.422-2211 dbrezenoff [at] cagreens.org


Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 cvellucci [at] cagreens.org

Schwarzenegger's glitzy eco-conferences, even Obama's
video talk may not mean real change; big first step
would be to fire ARB chair, suggest Greens

BEVERLY HILLS – Glitzy eco-conferences like the Global Climate Summit
hosted by Gov. Schwarzenegger this week here – punctuated by a video talk
by President-Elect Obama – are a welcome sign attitudes about climate
change are changing, but they often don't translate to real change,
said a Green Party environmental expert today.

In fact, Wes Rolley, a California resident and co-chair of the U.S. Green
Party EcoAction Committee, charges that one of the best things
Schwarzenegger could do to help the environment would be to fire the chair
of the Air Resources Board.

"He should fire Mary D. Nichols (ARB chair) and replace her with someone
who puts the interests of the citizens of this state first. Schwarzenegger
is asking us to trust the same Air Resources Board for climate change
solutions that has failed to deliver on any of their other mandates," said
Rolley.

"While we support the intent of this conference, we must look carefully at
the history of big event publicity followed by non-action that has
characterized the Schwarzenegger approach to ecological issues. In too many
cases we have seen these big media events followed by failures to follow
through. Even his signature achievement, AB32, is not even close to
delivering the changes we need. It is still at the stage of trying to get
approval of a scoping plan to tell us how bad the problem really is," said
Rolley.

The Green Party already knows the extent of the problem, added Rolley,
citing study after study confirming not only the effect of atmospheric
accumulation of greenhouse gases, but that the same gasses, particularly
methane, cost California's economy $28 billion in health care costs, lost
work and even premature deaths.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger is once again raising our expectations for a better
future, something he is good at selling. We can only hope that this future
is not like the past, filled with press conferences followed by little
action. One-hundred and thirty California Mayors signed the U.S. Conference
of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Maybe as California has taken the
leadership role away from an inactive Federal Government, local leaders may
need to take over the leadership role from an ineffective state
government," Rolley noted.
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Climate Change Proposed Scoping Plan:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/document/psp.pdf
The Benefits of Meeting Federal Clean Air Standards:
http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news/2008/091-air-pollution-study.html