LOS ANGELES, CA, Dec. 2, 2010 -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California with EPA's Climate Change Champion Award in recognition of his accomplishments in green energy, clean technology, but above all for his extraordinary leadership in the struggle against global climate change.
"Because of Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership, the world looks to California as an example of climate change policies that make sense," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "For enacting courageous policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the state's renewable energy portfolio, we recognize Governor Schwarzenegger as our Climate Change Champion."
The Governor's impressive environmental legacy includes several groundbreaking achievements, including:
• The 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) -- the world's first comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to reduce green house gases.• A waiver from US EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from California's passenger vehicles.
• A public-private partnership to build a hydrogen highway in California to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and clean up the air.
• The Million Solar Roofs Initiative to provide 3,000 MW of clean renewable energy and reduce green house gases by 3 million tons.
These achievements, combined with initiatives on carbon emission goals, low carbon fuels and emission have made the governor a worthy recipient of EPA's Climate Change Champion Award.
Additional awardees include: Mayor Ashley Swearengin, City of Fresno; American Samoa House of Representative Taotasi Soliai; Alex Cabillo , Hualapai Tribe, AZ; Dr. Chip Fletcher, University of Hawaii; Rebecca Quintana, Visalia, CA; Jeanne Rizzo, San Francisco; Dino Giacomazzi, Hanford, CA; Aitan Grossman, Palo Alto, CA; City of Hermosa Beach, CA; Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach; Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA.
The awards, held on the EPA's 40th anniversary help celebrate "40 Years of Environmentalism." Since 1970, America's environmental history has stood witness to both dramatic events and remarkable progress. For 40 years, EPA has carried out a mission to protect the air we breathe, to safeguard the water that flows through our communities and into our homes, to ban unsafe chemicals and pesticides, and to care for the land where we build neighborhoods, schools and businesses.
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