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2007 California Environmental Scorecard

Year In Review

Download the entire "Year in Review" as a PDF.

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Driven to Distraction

As we reported in last year’s Scorecard, the 2006 legislative session was one of the most productive in recent years for the environment, capped by the enactment of the milestone AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. It was also an election year, and 2006 closed with hopeful signs of change:

• Almost half of the Assembly—37 out of 80 members—were newly-elected freshmen (in 2004 there were 18). In fact, a majority of the Assembly Democratic caucus—25 out of 48—were elected to their first term.
• The voters approved an unprecedented $43 billion in infrastructure bonds, for everything from transportation to housing to flood control.
• Governor Schwarzenegger triangulated his way to easy re-election, cheerfully declaring that his election and the 2006 legislative session ushered in an era of post-partisan cooperation.
• For environmentalists, AB 32 promised to change just about everything. If the state was serious about reducing its global warming gas emissions, then the process itself would lead to many other environmental improvements we had long supported.

Alas, it was all too much. The post-election, post-bonds, post-AB 32, post-partisan world, both real and imagined, seemed to drive the legislature and governor to distraction. After the voters approved a record level of bonds, the legislature and governor were eager to “put the money on the street,” but they struggled all year to decide exactly how it should be spent. With so much money on the table, the battles among interest groups and legislators were intense and many detailed spending decisions were left for next year.

>> Next page: >> "What Got Done"
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