A common complaint about people and organizations located in and around the nation’s capital is that they live in a different reality than the rest of us. More evidence to support this theory arrived in the form of a press release announcing that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is to receive the National Park Trust’s (NPT) highest honor for “leadership and innovation in the protection of public lands in California and for his life-long commitment to children’s health.” After laughing to the point of tears, I came to the conclusion that the folks at NPT don’t get much in the way of news back in the beltway. Apparently all they get from California are press releases from the Governor’s office. If they had access to the news, they’d know that the Governor proposed closing our state parks as a budget cutting measure setting off a firestorm of protest from the overwhelming majority of Californians who want their parks to remain open.  The Governor then sallied forth in a blaze of PR glory saying he found a way to keep the parks open. The real story of his actions is here. Here’s former Assemblymember and real environmental champion John Laird’s take on the “Green” Governor’s action:

Earlier this year, the governor proposed to close 220 of the 279 state parks. This summer, after the governor vetoed parks money on top of cuts he had already proposed, his administration started the process to close 100 parks. After a two-month campaign by parks advocates, he backed off on any outright closures. But even now, the same dollar cuts are forcing closures of some state parks for days, weeks and months at a time. Is this worthy of an award? Hardly.

Laird then compared the proposed award to “Sarah Palin getting a wildlife protection award.” As to awarding the Governor’s “life-long commitment to children’s health,” I guess the NPT didn’t get the news last May that the Governor proposed eliminating health insurance for nearly one million California children.

Over the course of his gubernatorial career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has buried the media in press releases and dazzled them with press events to distract them from the fact that his leadership on protecting the environment is at best mediocre. Succumbing to the sheer volume of PR, the press has dubbed him the Green Governor and a fair number of California voters believe it to be true. Well press releases are not facts and media events are not good governance.

That is why the CLCV is launching our Build a Greener Governor 2010 campaign to help you help us separate PR fancy from hard facts for the voting public. The campaign website will launch here, GreenGov2010.org, in early November. Sign help up and participate. Help us find the truth and take California’s future into your own hands.