A Peak at Poochigian’s Record on the Environment
Let’s just take a brief look at one of these areas: Enforcement of environmental laws to see where the Poochigian, the Republican nominee stands. As a term limited out state Senator, he has a long history which also includes his years in the state Assembly.
The California League of Conservation Voters keeps a scorecard of environmental votes in the legislature. Over his terms in the Assembly and Senate, Poochigian rated: 13% in 1995, 4% in 1996, 9 % in 1997, 0 % in 1998, 0% in 1999, 7% in 2000, 0 % in 2001, 0% in 2002, 0 % in 2003, 6% in 2004, and 9% in 2005. This is a legislative career average of 4.3 %.
The Sierra Club gave Poochigian a 0% rating in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
On global warming, he voted against AB 32, the landmark law to limit greenhouse gas emissions this year and has consistently opposed other efforts in the past including the creation of a Global Warming Index for new cars (AB 1493 of 2002).
Despite the fact that Poochigian’s hometown of Fresno is ranked the fifth worst city in the United States he has opposed measures to cut air pollution from agricultural sources, curtail the burning of agricultural waste and slash the emissions of ports and cars. He voted against the elimination of smog check exemptions and programs designed to cut harmful car emissions.
Not only did Poochigian vote against almost every environmentally friendly law he could, he also actively authored legislation to weaken California’s environmental protections.
In 1996, Poochigian authored AB 2264, to weaken existing laws regulating registration of pesticides in California. The bill seriously undermined California programs designed to prevent pesticide contamination of groundwater and to limit public exposure to harmful levels of airborne pesticides. The San Francisco Chronicle in an article, “Poisonous 'Reforms' Of Pesticide Laws,” on May 28, 1996, called Poochigian one of the pesticide industry’s “legislative minions” and stated that Poochigian “[is] pushing proposals to dismantle the entire state regulatory apparatus in so far as it exceeds federal standards.”
Poochigian also authored AJR 52, a resolution asking Congress and the President to reform the federal Endangered Species Act to require that preservation efforts for endangered or threatened species be performed first on public lands before any private lands could be used for that purpose. AJR 52 failed passage on the Assembly floor, 35-31.
Poochigian sponsored SB 1141 in 2001, which repealed an existing exemption allowing the California Attorney General’s Office to file a California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) suit without raising the grounds for the suit during the Environmental Quality Hearing.
Bottom Line on Environment and Poochigian as AG
Just on the one issue of the environment, the list goes on and includes hostility towards coastal protections and many other areas. We will delve into these in more detail in the future. Needless to say, most Californians if they know of his record, will not want Chuck Poochigian in charge of enforcing our state’s environmental laws as the Attorney General.
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/09/chuck_poochigia.html
