Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he likes the idea of the Green New Deal but he thinks that is bogus.
“Something that is very well-intentioned, but, I think, bogus,” he said in an interview with The Atlantic published Friday.
The former governor stated that the law could create additional initiatives for fighting climate change, but added, “[t]o me, the only thing that really matters is: How do we move forward with our goals? And this means that we stop increasing the number of greenhouse gases and pollution that we put out there.”
According to The Hill, Schwarzenegger, a former Republican governor who championed major energy and environmental reform in California before leaving office in 2011, said the rest of the country should follow the Golden State’s example.
“[M]y point always was that there’s only one deal, and that is the California deal,” he said. “We in California have shown that it can be done, and we have shown how to do it. And therefore, if the nation really wants to be serious in reducing greenhouse gases by 25 percent as we did, all they have to do is copy us. That’s what states are supposed to do, to be the laboratory for the federal government, and just have the federal government copy very good ideas done by various states.”
Lately, Schwarzenegger has sought to distance himself from the GOP on the issue of climate saying that he considers himself being part of a different type of Republican Party than the one controlling the White House.
“I think I’m a true Republican,” he said. “If you look at Ronald Reagan or President Nixon or President Lincoln, these were people that we’re fighting for equality. I’m inclusive. I see myself as that. I see myself as a Ronald Reagan Republican, someone that is very, very good with protecting the economy, but also good at protecting the environment.”
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