Governor Schwarzenegger’s veto of almost a billion of spending, primarily for the neediest Californians couldn’t have come at a worse time.  To recap, now is a good time to allow the needy to starve, the sick to suffer, and the elderly to go unassisted, but a bad time to increase taxes a single penny on the wealthiest Californians. Sen. Steinberg has indicated that he will attempt to reverse the cuts under a new governor, but that is still a ways away.

Anyway, some legislators and child care activists held a press conference in the East Bay yesterday, and managed to get a few members of the press there. It is still pretty big news that over a quarter of a billion for working parents on CalWORKS was cut, at least for non-insiders.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team has moved on.  Any discussion of that news is just rehashing battles already fought. That the cuts are about to take effect, and the devestation about to be wreaked on families across the state, well, pay no mind to that.  It just isn’t news.  Reporters spilling ink on the subject are basically historians wasting their time…or so says Aaron McLear, the governor’s spokesman.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear this afternoon questioned why, despite today’s news conference and the veto’s impending effects, I’m bothering to report about a veto that happened weeks ago – “We’re having a presser tomorrow to overturn Prohibition. Hope you can make it.” – and referred questions to state Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

(Asked if he really wanted to be so cavalier about a veto that will impact so many families, McLear responded by e-mail, “Sounds like you’re writing from a particular point of view – interesting reporting. Just making sure u know this story is weeks old.”) (InsideBayArea)

I suppose when you are walking through Brentwood, admiring the scenery, you don’t really see the people suffering from the cuts.  But they are real, and their stories worth telling.  That the Governor’s staff is that heartless should be no surprise at this point, though.

We can get a portion of the way to meeting our future water needs with a bit more storage. But, quite simply, we can’t build our way out of the water crisis. No matter how much we build, we will not create additional rain or mitigate the effects that climate change will have upon the state.

So, conservation is where the rubber meets the road. Consider this:

New dams would produce up to 1 million acre-feet of water annually, compared with up to 3.1 million acre-feet freed up each year by new water efficiency programs, according to the delta task force, which cited state Department of Water Resources statistics. (Fresno Bee 10/21/09)

The question then is how we create some of the efficiencies to actually conserve the water. Some conservations are fairly straightforward. For example, many cities do not yet have water meters, installing them will rapidly reduce water usage as people get an idea of how much they are using and start paying for excessive use.

The bigger question is where these conservation gains will come from, and how do hold users accountable.  There are a number of questions to look at, and this Fresno Bee article does a pretty good job taking a look at some of the bigger issues.

One issue that seems to always pop up is the question of coastal vs non-coastal. In the current negotiations, Republicans are arguing that coastal cities aren’t required to do enough for conservation. Much of that is because many coastal cities have already put in some pretty effective conservation measures. Under the current proposal, the targets for each city are generally a 20% reduction, but cities that have already made reductions have to do less.

The biggest question is enforcement.  Republicans want to give the least possible teeth to this measure by assuring that their could not be any legal ramifications of failing to meet the requirements, which Democrats already say isn’t in the bill.  However, it isn’t at all clear that without the possibility of legal challenges there will be enough teeth to actually enforce with only some grants as a carrot for compliance.  In other words, the bill is all carrot, and no stick.  If you meet the targets, you get some extra grants, if you miss them, you don’t. But the water still gets pumped either way.

If this water package is going to last for more than 5 or 10 years, it is going to need to be able to require very strict water efficiency. However, the key is getting beyond short-term political gain to do what’s best for the state. Whether that happens appears to be up to the Legislative Republicans…again.

Last week, Arnold threatened to veto every bill. Just like every other statement he has ever uttered, you have no idea whether it is just a line he is delivering, or if it actually means something. As Robert pointed out, he “released some of the hostages” yesterday morning, however, he has since decided that the whole vetoing everything was a waste of $@#^ing time.

Although he failed to win bipartisan accord on a sweeping, multibillion-dollar plan to address the state’s water problems, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday night backed down on his threat to veto hundreds of bills as punishment for legislative leaders’ inability to reach a deal.

As the midnight deadline for signing or rejecting 704 bills approached, Schwarzenegger said sufficient progress had been made in the water talks, and he planned to act on all of the bills. As negotiations concluded late Sunday, the governor had signed into law 230 bills and vetoed 221.(LAT 10/12/09)

But Torey Van Oot at CapAlert has the best catch. Last year, Arnold made fun of bills in the Legislature, including one that would ban the practice of tail docking of dairy cows. Yeah, you guessed it: he signed the bill.

“Well, it’s obviously very sad that we are in the biggest financial crisis and we are way overdue to get the budget done and we face a $26 billion deficit and I ask over and over and over the legislators upstairs to just focus on the budget and here they are, they’re debating over the definition of honey. And a week ago they debated over cow tails and, a few weeks before that, they debated over should we have a Blueberry Commission in the state of California and all those kinds of things,” he said at the time.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear pointed out that the criticisms came in the midst of the budget negotiations — when the “the Legislature should focus on the budget above all else.”

“At the time he wanted them to focus on the budget, he thought that the budget was the most important issue,” he said. “Obviously, the budget is done, and he believes these bills are worth signing.” (CapAlert 10/12/09)

Yeah, he signed the bill to regulate honey labeling too. These are both good bills, but the real point is these ridiculous games of brinksmanship. It is like he simply can’t resist pushing deadlines to the last possible minute, can’t resist using them for every possible tactical advantage. He is using them to the detriment of the state and of all Californians, no matter the political stripes.

The words that emerge from his mouth might as well be totally ignored. You can’t trust his words and you can’t trust him.  

So remember the last legislative year? Well, if Arnold follows through on his latest threat, you might as well forget it.  He’s threatening to veto every bill on his desk if he doesn’t get a water deal by, um, tomorrow.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger  today affirmed a looming threat to veto a large bulk of the bills that have been sent to his desk unless lawmakers can strike a deal on a package of water bills.

“I made it very clear to the legislators and to the leaders that if this does not get done then I will veto a lot of their legislation, a lot of their bills, so that should inspire them to go and get the job done,” he said at the end of remarks to the Association of Community College Trustees’ Leadership Congress, which is meeting in San Francisco today. (CapAlert 10/08/2009)

We’ve mentioned the water issue for a long time, but there is no way to overemphasize one critical point: No matter how many projects you build, you do not get any additional water. The rush about getting water for the West Central Valley is toxic to the state government and to the environment.

The West Central Valley is a relatively dry area. The soil is fairly fertile, but right underneath it lies a layer of clay that sucks water away from the topsoil.  That means lots of tilling and lots of water.  But in order for these farmers, most of which are big corporate operations, to make any real money, water has to be very, very cheap. Unnaturally cheap.

This, of course, is why there wasn’t much agriculture done in the area by the native peoples. It was too inefficient to bring water there. But once we built a slew of pumps, it could be done. The problem is that pumps are expensive, and the farmers of the Western Central Valley don’t want to pay for it.

The Westlands Water District has been getting cheap water for a long time, but they are the bottom rung on the water priority list. They are trying to use the crisis in Sacramento and the drought to get around the contracts that they signed last year putting them at a lower priority in exchange for a lower price.

And Arnold is trying to help them to do just that by threatening, intimidating, and generally being a jerk.  And of course, Susan Kennedy, his “Democratic” Chief of Staff, is right there with him.  Putting a gun to the head of not only the legislature, but some very important measures.

This is no way to govern.  Arnold, You Lie!

UPDATE by Dave: I just want to add to the chorus of how appalling this is.  We’re talking about legislative blackmail.

And incredibly, Arnold has an ally in palace courtier George Skelton:

It’s ugly. But it’s an available political tool that the governor would be derelict not to use when an issue as critical as water is at stake.

This isn’t about some narrow scheme important only to a narrow interest. Nor is it merely about a governor’s pet project — other than his legacy-building, which should be encouraged as long as it helps the state. It’s about finally resolving an acute, decades-old problem that is worsening and affects practically all Californians.

Here’s another old white man with health insurance who could give a crap if women get maternity care in their health insurance plans, to just pick one bill at random.  Or who could care less if people who have insurance get dropped from it when they want to use it, to pick another.  George Skelton would actively make the lives of Californians worse because he thinks it’s sporting to see the Governor “use his power.”  That the power is illegal is of no consequence.

Then there’s this whopper:

These and other arguments — such as details of a new governing system for the delta — have raged for years. Schwarzenegger apparently doesn’t much care what the Legislature decides. He just wants it to compromise and send him a bill.

Yeah, he doesn’t care at all.  He actually invented the Latino Water Coalition, the fake-grassroots group pushing all the Republican solutions in water negotiations, but he’s really just an innocent bystander.  An innocent bystander who would destroy women’s health and allow insurance companies to kill people for profit and a host of other things, all with an asshole like George Skelton cheering him on.

Could it be that enough Democrats in the Assembly have finally had enough with the culture of blackmail and are ready to exact some real consequences?

In the Assembly, Democrats are employing tactics that seem designed to pressure the governor into signing bills. Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, sent a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown asking him to investigate whether the governor’s strategy is illegal. He cited a part of the state constitution that says it is a felony to seek to influence a legislative vote by means of “bribery, promise of reward, intimidation or other dishonest means.”

“While politicians are certainly allowed to express their disagreements in any way they find productive, they are not allowed to refuse to perform their sworn duties in order to force the legislature to accept policy positions,” Torrico wrote. “And public officials are specifically prohibited from the kind of direct ‘horse trading’ in which a government official agrees to take, or not take, a certain action in exchange for a specific vote.”

Assembly sources said some Assembly Democrats even suggested on a conference call last week that the lower house should impeach the governor if he imposes a mass veto. The constitution says the Assembly has the “sole power of impeachment” and that it can pursue it on a majority vote for unspecified “misconduct in office.” The Senate would then conduct a trial.

The idea seems to crop up every time lawmakers are frustrated with the governor, said Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco. It appears to be mostly talk for now.

“I know some members have mentioned the possibility of impeaching the governor,” Torrico said, adding, “There’s certainly a growing number of members who consider the governor’s extortion tactics to be illegal and a dereliction of duty. But (impeachment) has not been discussed formally in the caucus as an option.”

This sounds like a bluff on all counts, although the Governor’s actions certainly violate the spirit and (depending on your reading) the letter of the law about using “bribery, promise of reward, intimidation or other dishonest means” to influence a legislative vote.  I don’t expect Jerry Brown to act on it, however, because he’d probably welcome the ability to threaten the legislature in this manner were he the Governor.

And yet, if the Governor were to veto the entire legislative session because he couldn’t get his way on water (and doesn’t that represent a failure of HIS leadership, not the legislature’s?), I would say a case could be made that using extortion and running the state like a Hollywood negotiation is grounds for removal.  What’s more, while a two-thirds vote for removal in the Senate would be unlikely (though, given Schwarzenegger’s standing in the Republican Party, not completely out of the question), just saddling him with the legacy of impeachment would be a crushing blow to his ego, not to mention his efforts at putting a happy face on his astonishingly awful leadership.

I don’t think this is much more than a parlor game.  But just so we know the rules, a Governor can be impeached for “misconduct in office” by a simple majority in the Assembly.  According to Article 5 of the Constitution, it seems that during impeachment – not removal but impeachment – the Lieutenant Governor becomes Governor. (“The Lieutenant Governor shall act as Governor during the impeachment, absence from the State, or other temporary disability of the Governor or of a Governor-elect who fails to take office.”)  Given that John Garamendi could be elected to Congress in four weeks, the line of succession appears to show that the President Pro Tem of the Senate would be next in line.  So if the unthinkable happens, by November 3 we could be looking at Governor Darrell Steinberg.

As I scroll through my inbox, I’m looking at a series of emails from legislators and their various staff members. Lots of them.  Every one tells me a story of a pretty good bill. I’ll pluck a few out randomly: Nancy Skinner’s AB 758 is a win-win with both labor and business supporting it. It would facilitate the greening of California’s businesses.  And Asm. Evans’ AB 154 would conform California’s foster care system to some relatively minor federal requirements for matching dollars.  The bill could result in $50 mil in federal dollars by 2018.

Why do I bring this up? Because Arnold hasn’t signed any of the bills yet. Dan Walters thinks it might have something to do with a lack of a deal on water, but at this point it is all just reading tea leaves. He hasn’t said that he’s going to veto everything, as he frequently does when he’s throwing a temper tantrum.

But the lack of bill signings doesn’t really have to do with a lack of time on his hands.  He has time enough to play on the national field by releasing a statement saying that he generally supports the concept of health care reform.  While it might be useful for prominent Republicans to say these sorts of things for the health care debate, that isn’t his job. (Fmr. Sen. Majority Leader Frist and Former SecHHS/Gov. Tommy Thompson have also indicated support for the milquetoast health care reform bill from the Finance Committee.)

But this is Arnold’s MO.  Come out in the national press for the Mom and apple pie, and then proceed to slam the apple pie in the face of mommy dearest when he gets back to Sacramento.

So, perhaps the Mr. Freeze character wasn’t the right one for Arnold in the Batman story. It seems he would have been perfect for Harvey Dent.

One of the enduring takeaways of the Schwarzenegger era is just how much latitude he is given on the national level as some kind of transformative post-partisan leader, when those same reporters know that California is crumbling into dust under, and in many cases because of, his leadership.  We witnessed this again today as national media types heaped praise on the Governor issuing a letter about the Obama health care reform plan:

“As Governor, I have made significant efforts to advance health reform in California. As the Obama Administration was launching the current debate on health care reform, I hosted a bipartisan forum in our state because I believe in the vital importance of this issue, and that it should be addressed through bipartisan cooperation.

“Our principal goals, slowing the growth in costs, enhancing the quality of care delivered, improving the lives of individuals, and helping to ensure a strong economic recovery, are the same goals that the president is trying to achieve. I appreciate his partnership with the states and encourage our colleagues on both sides of the political aisle at the national level to move forward and accomplish these vital goals for the American people.”

I love the phrase “significant efforts,” by the way.  Others might call them “failed efforts,” but YMMV.

But this “praise” for health care reform is just a piece of paper.  One would think that the national media would seek to know the actions of the Governor on health care – one would be wrong, but one would still think that.  And it would take about 10 seconds of Googling to figure out that the Governor has vetoed key elements of the legislation working through Congress.  Last year he vetoed AB1945, which would have banned rescission, the insurance industry practice of dumping sick customers for technical violations on their applications like typos the moment that they try to use their policies for treatment.  He vetoed SB840, the universal health care bill, on multiple occasions in the past.  He vetoed SB1440, which would have mandated that insurance companies spend 85% of premiums on medical care.  He vetoed SB973, which would have created a public insurance option by linking local and regional measures.  He vetoed AB2, expanding the state’s high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions.

He basically has vetoed many of the same provisions to be found in the current health care bill.  And he is threatening to veto every bill on his desk this year, including another bill to ban rescissions so that customers who have paid insurance premiums for years aren’t left to die when they want to use their policies.  Anthony Wright notes some of the other bills:

* AB 119 (Jones): GENDER RATING, to prohibit insurers from charging different premium rates based on gender.

* AB 2 (De La Torre): INDEPENDENT REVIEW, to create an independent review process when an insurer wishes to rescind a consumer’s health policy, create new standards and requirements for medical underwriting, and requires state review before plan approval. Also raises the standard in existing law so that coverage can only be rescinded if a consumer willfully misrepresents his health history.

* AB 98 (De La Torre): MATERNITY COVERAGE, to require all individual insurance policies to cover maternity services.

* AB 244 (Beall): MENTAL HEALTH PARITY, to require most health plans to provide coverage for all diagnosable mental illnesses.

Dan Walters calls these bills “nothing of cosmic importance”.  Well sure, he’s not going to have a kid, and women are charged more than men by insurance companies anyway!  To an entitled white man with a good-paying job, he doesn’t have to worry about losing his policy or not getting comprehensive medical coverage.  But to a woman who can’t afford to lose her job to have a baby, or someone with a mental health problem who can’t get relief for his suffering, or someone with an individual policy living constantly in fear that his or her insurance will get revoked precisely when they need it, these are issues of “cosmic importance.”  Anyone saying otherwise is ignorant.

And yet the Governor will have no problem holding these bills, and these people, hostage.  His buddies at the Chamber of Commerce probably don’t want him to sign them at all.  So he writes a pretty letter supporting health care reform, while denying the very same measures to his own constituents.  And national media types call him a “bold leader.”

One reason why I didn’t particularly care for the Guardian’s Failifornia article was that it was really a human interest piece masquerading as a serious argument.   It’s not because its data was flawed or its tone insincere – though there’s some of that; the long section on Mendota neglects to mention that the city hinges entirely on agriculture and features 30% unemployment or more ANYTIME there’s a drought, unconnected to the larger structural problems in the state – but because it didn’t even try to assess the root causes of the crisis or the steps for resolution.

For example, it would be beneficial to take a look at the culture of blackmail we have here in state government (as an aside, did the writer even visit Sacramento?).  Politicians have learned over 30-plus years of dealing with onerous budget requirements that threatening blackmail is really the best way to get anything done.  Witness Arnold Schwarzenegger, threatening to veto nearly 700 bills that have passed both houses of the Legislature unless he gets his way on a water bill.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, apparently standing by a threat to veto hundreds of bills on his desk unless a deal can be reached on the state’s water problems, has suggested to Senate leader Darrell Steinberg that all legislation before the governor should be withdrawn to avoid a veto. About 700 bills are awaiting action.

Schwarzenegger did not formally request that the bills be yanked, but that was the implicit suggestion in his proposal, Capitol sources said.

The communications between Steinberg and the governor were referenced in an e-mail sent from Steinberg to Senate Democrats this week. In the internal e-mail, which was reviewed by Capitol Weekly, Steinberg said Schwarzenegger “even mentioned coming back this week to withdraw bills from his desk and hold them until after water is done.”

Arnold is absolutely ballsy enough to do this.  He has only signed 3 bills in the past four weeks since the Legislature adjourned September 11, and with six days to go and the Legislature not scheduled to return until after the deadline on October 11, I’m convinced of his sincerity to basically flush the entire legislative session down the toilet.

You just don’t see headlines like this in other states.  And that’s because the process here rewards blackmail.  Arnold knows that there are no repercussions for vetoing 700 bills.  There’s no media willing to call him out, there’s no possibility of a veto override because of some unwritten rule whereby that function doesn’t exist anymore, and there’s a high possibility of legislative Democrats simply capitulating to whatever shrieking Republican demands in order to appear “reasonable” or just move along the machinery of government.  Arnold’s just using good tactical sense because the system is set up to reward the most outlandish actions.   So he’ll probably get what amounts to a bailout of wealthy agribusiness interests at the expense of the environment and the working class.

This is truly the portrait of failure in California.  Right-wing interests have learned how to hijack so well you’d think they attended one of those Al Qaeda training camps where they practice on the monkey bars.  And the entire political class walks around as if this is perfectly normal.  It’s actually appalling.

If you want to drill down to why California is in crisis, it’s because we routinely see political leaders walk into the capital strapped with dynamite across their chests, only to be given the key to the city and a milkshake as a reward for such behavior.

…The Merced Sun-Star editorialized on this today, bashing the Governor for his inflexibility and willingness to toss out important bills on mortgage reform and health care for his own personal vanity, but also saying, “Lawmakers rarely reach closure on state budgets and complex, controversial policies unless they have a gun pointed at their heads.”  Yes, and that’s the PROBLEM, not a one-off sentence to be seen as an inexorable truism.

The establishment in Sacramento has manned the barricades, battened down the hatches and gone on the offensive to prove their own worth.  They sent their best man in the media, George Skelton, out to prove that no, despite your lying eyes, the California Legislature had a real banner year.  After all, they managed to bring suffering to the lives of hundreds of thousands of state residents with consensus and bipartisan elan!

The current Legislature, regardless of Duvall and despite ideological polarization, has had a better year than it’s getting credit for.

Its main accomplishment was keeping the state afloat amid a flood of red ink, created primarily by the toughest economic times since the Great Depression. OK, so it did use some bailing wire and chewing gum! The bills got paid, even if briefly with IOUs.

With great difficulty and pain — at least for Democrats — the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed programs by roughly $30 billion. They also struck a major blow against “auto-pilot” spending by permanently eliminating all automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments, except for K-12 schools. And they summoned enough courage to temporarily increase taxes by $12.5 billion.

In the end, they found a way to restore health insurance for 660,000 low-income kids.

The tax increases hit the more vulnerable elements of society disproportionately, of course.  They actually found that way to restore children’s health insurance by lowering industry taxes and increasing the co-pay and deductible burden on the low-income families themselves, while reducing the covered care.  And anyone who adds cutting $30 billion in programs and eliminating COLA as an accomplishment is a bit of a social deviant.  But there are probably no lengths to which Skelton will go to defend the palace walls from the rabble who think, based on the evidence, that the system is horribly broken.

Steve Maviglio wisely steers clear of the more horrific achievements of this year’s Legislature, and offers a slightly more defensible outlook of the ’09 Legislative session.  Still, there’s a lot unsaid:

Looking back, getting the measures on the May ballot was a significant early success that required 2/3 votes. And toward the end of the session, in addition to the renewable energy bill, Speaker Bass pushed through measures on childrens health and domestic violence that won broad bipartisan support. (The Speaker also got a standing ovation, and she appears to have strengthened her support in Caucus. Compare that to the ouster of the two Republican leaders).

Okay, so the grand water deal didn’t get done. Big deal. Nothing like that has been done for a generation. Perhaps Senate President pro Tem Steinberg set the bar too high when he said he’d get it done. In any case, all parties agree that they got close and can pick up the pieces and get it finished in short order.

So for all those crying for major reforms, put it all into perspective. Sure, improvements could be made, and things could have been better, but this is not reason for drastic action. Far from it.

Of course, the renewable bill is veto bait, as are many of the other major bills pending the Governor’s signature.  And the domestic violence bill didn’t pass the Senate, so, um, that doesn’t count.  The prison bill offered decent parole reforms but stopped well short of a real solution.  Everyone keeps saying the water bill will happen but the two sides remain far apart, and the fact that they’ll have to go into overtime to reconcile it kind of proves the point, no?

But Maviglio tips his hand with the line “this is not reason for drastic action.”  Of course he would say that.  He’s profited well from the status quo.  Anything that messes with it could hurt him professionally, and what’s more, could stop the endless blaming of outside factors to account for stunning failure.

There is no shame in stating that this was a failed legislative session.  Just about everyone in California would agree with you, particularly the ones who are suffering the most from the destruction of social insurance caused by the most heartless cuts.  Simply put, the Great Recession dominated legislative activity, and the conservative veto from various 2/3 requirements restricts the Legislature from fulfilling the expressed will of the people through their votes (NOTE: This does not only come into play with the budget; late last Friday Republicans blocked over 20 bills that required 2/3 votes for one reason or another, probably because they knew they could get away with it).  That’s not something to explain away, it’s actually something to fight, every single day until the problem is rectified.

Skelton and Maviglio may want to tell themselves all is well, but the public knows better, and they’re going to demand major structural change.  Those who think that the Legislature can still be a force for good in the state can get aboard and provide the best ideas to break the supermajority gridlock and get the state moving again.  Or they can defend their narrow interests.  Their defense will fail, and it would be a shame not to see them on the right side of history.

As Jim Evans, Communications Director for Sen. Steinberg, notes, the Governor is poised to veto a bill he championed, which would mandate the highest renewable energy standard in the nation, requiring utilities to get 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.  But it’s far worse than just a veto.  Schwarzenegger wants to then set the standard himself by executive order.  You can see why this would please him – he would be able to say that he boldly moved the state forward in the renewable energy space, while vetoing the bill from the Legislature that would do the same thing.  And he wold significantly weaken the standard in a variety of ways.

The order presumably would set no limit on how much of the green power could be imported from other states.

Environmentalists who have been told about the governor’s still-evolving plans said Schwarzenegger also was considering directing the California Air Resources Board to look at broadening the state’s definition of renewable energy sources to include large hydroelectric dams and nuclear energy plants.

Critics questioned whether Schwarzenegger’s order would be binding once he leaves office at the end of 2010. The validity of the order would be subject to a variety of potential legal challenges, they predicted.

So Schwarzenegger would allow utilities to outsource all the green jobs that would be created if power needed to be created on California soil, ruining the one area of potential economic recovery in the bill.  He would put the standard on shaky legal ground, open to litigation and an unclear mandate.  And he would hand a gift to the nuclear power industry by twisting arms at the Air Resources Board to change their definition of renewable energy.

This isn’t just short-sighted, it’s downright criminal.  A high renewable standard could spurn all kinds of economic activity, but without a limit on importation, that activity will just go elsewhere instead of California.  This is an effort of questionable legality for Schwarzenegger to reward corporate cronies with lower purchasing prices for green energy at the expense of California jobs.

Astounding.