[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Walker
West Coast Director
Environmental Working Group

It’s no secret California Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to return to the governor’s office he held from 1975 to 1983. But for a guy whose family name is synonymous with “Democrat” and is viewed nationally as a beyond-liberal lefty (far from it), it’s interesting that on the environment he’s staking out the same turf as Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold’s signature issue, of course, is global warming, but the man once known as Gov. Moonbeam is working hard to steal the spotlight. In the space of a month, Brown filed suit against the Bush Administration for its delay in deciding whether California can set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles; petitioned the EPA to regulate GHG emissions from airplanes; and struck a deal to reduce GHG emissions from ships, trucks and trains at the Port of Los Angeles.