As I write this newsletter the temperature outside our office is over 106 degrees and I know that it’s just going to get hotter—both inside and outside the capitol—during the last month of the legislative session, where the most important issue facing the Legislature will be global warming.

Recent polling by the Public Policy Institute of California confirms what so many of us outside the capitol already know: The majority of Californians from all walks of life want the state to take action on global warming. The concern is so great that 66 percent of those polled want the state to act independently of the federal government to solve this problem.

Millions of people went to see the global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” and others are reading daily about the record temperatures affecting California and the rest of the country. Californians are ready to take action to reduce global warming pollution and lead the way for the rest of the country.

The good news is that there is strong support for strong solutions that will lower global warming gas emissions. Two-thirds of likely voters support the Global Warming Solutions Act, co-authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and Asm. Fran Pavley. This bill would put teeth to the governor’s global warming goals and set the pace for the rest of the country to follow (see our story for more details).

Last year, Gov. Schwarzenegger promised to take action on global warming. Now he and other state leaders in Sacramento need to make good on this promise by supporting policies that cut global warming pollution from the state’s biggest polluters.

Let’s hope that the hot air in Sacramento does not destroy this opportunity for us to pass a major policy solution to global warming.

Sincerely,

Dan Jacobson
Legislative Director