[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Barbara Boxer
Chair
U. S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

On Saturday morning, May 31, I had the honor of presenting the Democrats’ national weekly radio address, and I wanted to share the text of my remarks with you.

My topic could not be more timely: I discussed the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, the landmark global warming bill that is being debated on the Senate floor this week. My bill will give our nation the tools we need to combat global warming and reverse the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

The text of the radio address, as delivered, is below:

Good morning. I’m Senator Barbara Boxer from California and Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Next week, the Senate will begin debate on one of the most important issues of our time – global warming.

Senators have come together across party lines to write a law that will not only enable us to avoid the ravages of unchecked global warming, but will create millions of new jobs and put us on the path to energy independence. Other benefits of our legislation will be cleaner air, energy efficiency, relief for consumers and the alternative energy choices that American families deserve. And, by acting wisely, America will regain the leadership we have lost these past seven years.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Stephen Johnson is the EPA chief who rejected his own staff's recommendations to grant California a waiver to regulate our own greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Boxer hauled him in front of the environmental committee she chairs for a grill session to see what the heck prompted him to ignore science and decades of legal precedent. LAT

"I was not directed by anyone," Johnson said at a hearing before the environment and public works committee, denying he had been influenced by political pressure from the White House or anyone else. "This was solely my decision."

Johnson failed to mollify Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee chairwoman and perhaps his fiercest critic, who vowed to press ahead with her investigation into how the EPA chief reached his decision. Within hours of his testimony, she introduced legislation -- co-sponsored by 17 senators, including Democratic presidential front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois -- to overturn the decision.

Good. They should. There appears to be no reasonable explanation for the rejection other than the car industry doesn't like California regulating its own air.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

What do leaders like former Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. PeteWilson think is the key to making the Legislature more functional?Well, for starters, more booze, more backroom deals and less sunlight, the Sacramento Bee reports. They were only half joking. The realproblem, they say, is the absence a real relationship betweenlawmakers—how do we get that back?

Speaker Nunez announced yesterday that he would oppose Proposition 92,the well-intentioned but flawed community college measure that represents ballot box budgeting at its worst. Nunez's decision, reported by the Capitol Alert, was based on theinitiative's lack of attention toward low income students and itspotential to jeopardize funding for other high education programs.

Describing the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's movement to take up landmark global warming legislation as the "biggest week of my life," California Senator Barbara Boxer, theCommittee Chair, is set to be a pivotal figure in efforts to finallypass an emissions reduction bill with teeth, the Sacramento Beereports. Even Republicans concede the bill will pass, but with a vetothreat looming, the fight has just begun.

There's more...

Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley School of Journalism

by juls [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

Hannah-Beth Jackson brought up one of my favorite ways to needle Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that is to talk about his overblown self-appointed title of "Collectionator".  He said he was going to go to Washington and use his relationship with the president and the then Republican Congress to bring back some of the $50 billion in tax dollars that Californians send to DC, but rarely receive back.  Arnold has been an abject failure in that regard.

That title really should go to Barbara Boxer.  Chron: