California Attorney General Jerry Brown gave members of
the California League of Cities convention yesterday in the state capital the threat of lawsuits if the state's 400+ cities don’t account for the greenhouse-gas
producing activities related to their planning processes.
The former California governor and mayor of Oakland earlier this year in his new role as
self-proclaimed "top cop," sued one hyper-growth California county
for not calculating the impact of its extensive development plans on greenhouse gas
production.
Brown used the state's groundbreaking 2006 AB
32 global warming mitigation legislation as precedent in a now-settled lawsuit against San Bernardino County. His office is compelling the
county to inventory its total greenhouse gas emissions and to come up with a
greenhouse gas reduction action plan for reducing emissions tied to new
development, through a long-existing regulation known as the California
Environmental Quality Act.
"We've got to adopt feasible measures to reduce greenhouse gasses through
public processes--every city and county in California can do it," Brown
told the gathering of hundreds of mayors and city managers. "I want to
join with you to help. If you don't, I'll sue you. You have your roadmap, your
threat, and the carrot of good things you'll achieve and bad things you'll
avoid, so let's do it!"
The “bad things” he referred to that could be avoided included more smog and
forest fires because of higher temperatures and broken levees because of
increased flooding risks attributed to global climate change.
Brown, in his gruff San Francisco "Out-the-Mission" accent (which to
this native Chicagoan always sounds more Chi-Town than anything), lauded
Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger and the state's General Assembly for its
far-reaching global climate change emission reduction targets.
"What California has done in adopting AB 32 is more
comprehensive than the greenhouse gas reduction goals in any state and in some
ways is more complete than anything accomplished by any nation."
Brown alluded to the California Environmental Quality Act being signed back in
1970 by then Governor Ronald Reagan and how last year Gov. Schwarzenegger
signed AB 32 into law.
"A Republican signed the most far-reaching, invasive measure to make your life more difficult and now I'm the top cop to chase down people who emit greenhouse gasses," the long-time Democrat said, with a hint of irony.
The crowd of city officials, representing every political stripe, guffawed and cheered the former-seminary-student-turned career politician.
Good! I'm glad that someone with balls and a pistol is finally outing climate highwaymen.
Now, for the oil+auto companies!! They, and housing developers, really ought to go the transit oriented development route to make their future loot...
Posted by: Ken O | September 07, 2007 at 05:48 PM