Arnold, during the recall and now, claims that he is trying to be an “enviromental governor.” He issues nice platforms  says that he is tough on global warming and makes some pretty nice speeches. And you have to give him some credit.  At least he doesn’t continue on with the lack of evidence baloney:

I say the debate is over – We know the science, we see the threat, and the time for action is now. World Environment Day 6/1/05

But unfortunately, you can’t have it both ways.  He wants to control environmental threats, protect Californians and not injure businesses.  But as they say in the world you can only pick two.  One has to be sacrificed.

And it’s the same with the levee situation in the Sacramento Delta. He says he wants to protect the people living there as well as potential people who want to move there and, of course, to protect development interests in the region.  But you can’t have it all.  So, he’s going to let developers continue building in the flood plain, even while acknowleding that we need to spend $6 Billion in flood protection.  Here’s his logic:

“The reason I don’t like to go toward not building — there are some people who believe that’s the way to go — is that, if you say to yourself, let’s not build in flood prone areas, what do we say about earthquake prone areas?” Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Bee. “Then you say, the Bay Area, it has a lot of earthquakes…Should no one build in the Bay Area?”

Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the flaw in that logic.  In the Bay Area, we have earthquake codes.  We do not build buildings anymore that do not meet a very strict level of earthquake stability.  In the Flood Plain, besides building every house on stilts (which I don’t see happening), what are you going to do?  If a flood comes in the next ten years before the money from the bond package is spent to protect the Flood Plain, what happens then?  Well, all of that development is destroyed with the possibility of death thrown in for the residents.  So, yes, I would not build a rickety building in the Bay Area, but nor should we build in the flood plain until we have given those communities the best possible shot of surviving the natural disasters that are sure to arrive.