Schwarzenegger in Last Action Hero 3 Showing in Sacramento on Earth Day 2008

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Walker
West Coast Director
Environmental Working Group

A year after he mocked environmentalists as "Prohibitionists at a frat party," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered another big Earth Day speech – this time at Yale – with the same theme: The environmental movement is a failure because it tries to make people feel guilty about what we've done to the planet, rather than promising an exciting and fun-filled green future. He says the movement needs to move from "hand wringing and whining to [an image] that is hip, . . . cutting edge, forceful and self confident and even sexy."

Much like an action movie franchise on its third installment, most of the Yale speech is recycled from last year's address at Georgetown. But Schwarzenegger – not content simply to ignore those who point out that his jet-set, industry-friendly walk doesn't always match his save-the-planet talk – picked an old and very tired wedge issue to try to make his critics seem like nerds in the punchbowl: He says environmentalists' zeal for protecting endangered species is blocking progress in the war on global warming:

“[T]he whole world the Germans, the French, the Canadians, the Japanese they all want to come out to California and put solar power plants in the Mojave desert and in other places. The only thing is that the problem is getting that new energy to the power grid because of environmental hurdles.

“San Diego Gas & Electric wants to develop solar geothermal fields in Imperial Valley and build 150 miles of transmission lines to go and take this power right into San Diego, but it faces opposition even though it would replace an old carbon based power plant.

“So the point I'm making is it's not just businesses that have slowed things down, it's not just Republicans that have slowed things down, it's also Democrats and also environmental activists sometimes that slow things down.

“And even my own agency that I'm supposed to be the head of and the boss of I found out is slowing things down. Now, this gets very complicated, I tell you. For example, our Department of Fish and Game is slowing approval of a solar facility in Victorville. It's because of an endangered squirrel, an endangered squirrel which has never been seen on that land where they're supposed to build the solar plants. But if such a squirrel were around, this is the kind of area that it would like, they say.

“Now, the department wants the power company to buy three acres of land to protect these little creatures for every acre of solar land that is being used so that the squirrel could be saved if it exists. So a squirrel that may not exist is holding up environmental progress on a larger and more pressing fight against global warming. What they have here is a case of environmental regulations holding up environmental progress. I don't know whether this is ironic or absurd. But, I mean, if we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it. (Applause) “

Shades of the Fresno kangaroo rat, a tiny critter former Gov. Pete Wilson picked on for standing in the way of suburban sprawl in the Central Valley. The tactic of blaming an endangered species for blocking progress has been used again and again, in battles over the snail darter, the spotted owl, and many other species. What's fiendishly brilliant about Schwarzenegger's twist is that it pits one environmental good (saving endangered species) against another (promoting solar power). Divide and conquer: Good military strategy, not a way to show environmental leadership by bringing people together.