Gov. Brown And Schwarzenegger Champion Curbing Of Greenhouse Gases
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- California Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger were side by side in the state Capitol championing California's efforts to curb greenhouse gases.
"Do you want to be strapped with your mouth to an exhaust pipe and then turn on the engine and see how long it would take to tap out?" Schwarzenegger joked.
Schwarzenegger took aim at critics of California's 10-year fight to cut back on greenhouse gases.
"They took it all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court finally said 'yes greenhouse gas is a pollutant' - well duh," Schwarzenegger said.
"We pushed back and we pushed back ... we terminated them," Schwarzenegger said.
It was also a rare public appearance by Gov. Brown, who has been quiet in this ballot-packed election year.
Nancy McFadden, Brown's executive secretary, says "Everybody always wants to ask us what big thing is Jerry Brown going to do. And one of the things that you have seen from us is we've identified priorities and kind of worked on them."
But two of the biggest ideas Brown has been hammered for lately, weren't even his.
"Did you know that Arnold is the guy who started the high speed rail? And then we have that delta fix. You know that one. That's another Schwarzenegger idea," Brown said. "He's got all these ideas. He creates these things and I got to carry them out."
McFadden said, "We have a lot of work to do that isn't about new things."
According to McFadden, for the last 30 days Brown "has been marching through 789 bills."
Brown said, "And a lot of stuff we do around here isn't all that important. That's why I have to veto all these bills. In fact I'd like to veto a lot more but I got to get along with the legislature."
Brown said, "I've had to sign or veto 789 bills in a short time so that takes extreme intellectual concentration and energy."
The governor said the public can expect him to be more vocal after he's finished deciding on the bills sitting on his desk.
