Terry Good News

Schwarzenegger Names Conservationist to Head Cal/EPA

To the delight of environmentalists, California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has chosen Terry Tamminen to head the state's Environmental Protection Agency. Tamminen helped start the Santa Monica environmental organization BayKeeper, then went to work for another green group, Environment Now. He was one of the drafters of Schwarzenegger's environmental platform, which included measures to protect California's national forests, cut air pollution by 50 percent, and invest in hydrogen vehicles. Environmentalists welcomed the plan but saw it as so ambitious -- even for a liberal Democrat, which Schwarzenegger is not -- that they feared it would amount to little more than politicking and pipe dreams. The naming of Tamminen to lead Cal/EPA is helping allay some of those suspicions, since it suggests that the governor-to-be plans to follow through on his green campaign promises.