Guest Contributor
Joe Armendariz

Memo to Arnold: Don't Just Say Something, Stand There!
Left-wing environmental policy from Schwarzenegger
[Joe Armendariz] 9/24/03

Most of the green policies, laid out by Arnold, in his Sunday speech out on the Carpinteria Bluffs (sacred ground for some), are utterly indistinguishable from the know-nothing environmental-left-wing crowd who have hijacked the Democratic Party and all of its candidates.

But don't take my word for it; consider some of Arnold's ideas:

Ask the federal government to buy back offshore oil leases to eliminate offshore drilling (and good-paying jobs)

Cutting air pollution statewide by 50 percent (these type of austerity measures always hurt the poor the hardest)

Reducing energy consumption by 20 percent within two years (by establishing dictatorial energy controls imposed from Sacramento?)

Creating a Sierra Nevada Mountains Conservancy (just what the state needs, more government control of our natural resources)

Strengthening the California Coastal Commission (so politicos can exploit it for political gain)

Increasing parks in urban areas (minorities need good-paying-jobs, not more havens for neighborhood drug-dealers)

Every one of these new policies have been (in some way, shape or form) proposed or supported by the Democrat's and their anti-working-family environmental-left-wing-allies. What remains to be proposed is an actual strategy to empower the private sector and help it create the millions of new jobs (particularly in the industrial-sectors) necessary to generate the revenues needed to balance the state budget. Because, after all, it isn't simply a matter of controlling spending. It is about an economic-growth-model built on market-oriented incentives in both the private AND public sector.

That continues to be the story-behind-the-story. Arnold, Cruz, Davis and to a lesser (far lesser) extent, McClintock, are focusing on the wrong things, as California continues its steady slide into the pacific ocean of red-ink and lost economic opportunity. The issue, with respect to the huge deficit and the 295,000+ lost manufacturing jobs, isn't that we lack trendy-left environmental policies! It is the exact opposite of that. We got into this economic and fiscal mess mostly due to the trendy-left, feel-good-environmentalism advanced by Davis, Bustamante, et al.

So, once again, the only unsolicited advice I would offer the Arnold campaign, with respect to environmental policy, is don't just say something; Arnold, stand there!

Joe Armendariz is Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Industrial Association and the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association.