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“ARI President Robert Kornahrens attended Governor Crist’s Global Climate Change Summit in Miami on July 12, 2007. Mr. Kornahrens is pictured here with Governor Schwarzenegger of California, Governor Crist of Florida, and Senator Mel Martinez of Florida at the Victory Dinner in Tampa, FL on July 13, 2007.”
Gov. Charlie Crist will open a summit on climate change today with goals of becoming a national leader on the issue and provoking global action.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
Striving to become the nation's next political crusader on global climate change, Gov. Charlie Crist will open a two-day summit today in Miami designed to prove that the Sunshine State, a latecomer to the issue, is now enlightened.The summit will feature marquee names within the environmental community, and culminate with the governor signing three executive orders to announce the first-ever greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets for Florida and impose California-style pollution-control standards on new cars and trucks. He will also order changes to the state building code to require more energy-efficient homes, and use the state's purchasing power to stoke demand for ethanol and other renewable fuels.The political strategy, patterned after fellow Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's in California, allows Crist to peddle a consumer-friendly issue, reinvigorate the state's environmental community and earn national political points for bringing the largest state in the Southeast to the climate-change bandwagon.''Not to put too dramatic a point on it, but I actually think what Gov. Crist is doing creates a tipping point for solving this issue worldwide,'' said Terry Tamminen, former head of California's Environmental Protection Agency and a key Schwarzenegger advisor who will be speaking at the conference.Tamminen believes that even though 22 other states have already put in place comprehensive plans to reduce globe-warming gases, Florida is the last big state needed to give the United States the clout to persuade the world's worst polluters to start reducing pollutants.''Obviously, the federal government is not going to take action anytime soon unless there's a new president and a new Congress,'' he said. ``It's up to the states to solve this problem, and the United States will solve it, one state at a time.''Crist says Tamminen ''in many ways is the cause'' of the governor's newfound passion to bring Florida into the climate-change debate. Tamminen met with Crist a month after the new governor took office and brought with him a map of the United States, showing the states in the Northeast and West that had adopted climate-change rules.''We looked at the Southeast part of the country and it was blank,'' Crist recalled. ``It struck a chord with me.''The governor also hopes that Florida's new green goals will help persuade federal and state regulators to require companies to change their practices.Crist wants everyone from automakers, electric companies, appliance manufacturers and home builders to make more and cheaper energy-efficient and greenhouse-gas-free products. He wants all Florida drivers to have access to cars and fuels that use low-cost ethanol or ethanol blends made from Florida-grown crops, a renewable resource.And he wants everyone to know he's leading by example. Crist rides in an ethanol-powered state car, has had an energy audit of the Governor's Mansion and next week will have solar panels installed to lower the energy bill at the 13,000-square-foot home. He has pushed the state board that regulates the state's biggest polluters -- electric utilities -- to focus on conservation, halt plans for two new coal-fired plants, and put new emphasis on biofuel, wind and solar power.But the governor's newfound battle against climate change is not politically risk-free. He is defying his party's traditional ideology. The GOP-led Legislature and former Gov. Jeb Bush resisted environmentalists' demands for Florida to adopt clean-emissions standards and use more energy from renewable sources.And the two-day ''Serve to Preserve Summit'' will highlight a speech from activist Robert Kennedy Jr., who accused President Bush in a Vanity Fair story of having the worst environmental record of any president in history.Among more conservative Republicans, Crist's attention to climate change has raised questions. House Speaker Marco Rubio, whose opening speech to the Legislature this year called for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels in Florida, believes ``the most immediate threat we can face is not global warming, it's our dependence on foreign fuels.''Democrats, who welcome the governor's initiatives but consider them a long time coming, warn of the practical hurdles ahead.''The biggest challenge will be how do we fund this,'' said Rep. Rick Kriseman, a St. Petersburg Democrat on the state House Energy Committee who has proposed eliminating sales taxes on hybrid cars. ``It's not cheap.''For all the hype, however, Crist is also going to have to produce results. The early draft of his executive orders won him kudos from many in the environmental community for being serious and comprehensive.But getting them implemented will not be easy. Even in California, which has worked for decades to be greener, the new greenhouse-gas emission standards have come under fire from one of Schwarzenegger's largest donors, the construction industry, and the auto standards are being challenged in court.Crist says the obstacles can be overcome. ''How much can it cost to build a windmill?'' he asked.Actually, it takes lots of coastline -- and residents willing to look at windmills there, says Florida Power & Light, which runs the nation's largest wind-turbine generators in Texas.''Today, there are some limitations to what we can do with solar and wind power but, over time, we have the ability to improve efficiency,'' said FPL President Armando Oliviera. ``We have hardly gotten started in that sense, and we look forward to working together with the governor.''
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