He angered his own party quite a bit. He was a definite handful---a big, brash personality difficult to compete with. He was a source of both pride and frustration for Californians---sometimes at the very same time. And, today, he is the Governator no more.
This Monday, January 3, 2011 marks Arnold Schwarzenegger's “hasta la vista” goodbye to politics in the Golden State. He is no longer a governor. He’ll just have to return to his lowly previous career as matinee god.
Thems the breaks.
Schwarzenegger blew into office a little less than 8 years ago when pretty much the entire state hated then Gov. Gray Davis and headlines like “Pacific Gas and Electric to Gov. Davis: We’re Busted” were regular bits of ink in the trade presses. Deregulation had taken the state---and the state utilities---to the cleaners, and Davis was left holding the bag, whether or not he was actually at fault.
Schwarzenegger swept in like the action hero he often portrays---trying to save the day for the state and for the state of energy.
At the time of Arnie’s big rescue, I worked for Electric Light and Power magazine and wrote a piece on Schwarzenegger’s energy plans. You can read that one HERE if you’d like to take a trip in the Way Back Machine. At that time, the only thing we were arguing about concerning Schwarzenegger was whether to use "governator" or "gubernator" as his nickname. (Governator won out, though I still prefer gubernator.)
Long story short: Arnie was going to fix it all.
"I will restore stability to our energy system and stimulate private investment in electricity generation and transmission," the governor's campaign website stated at the time. And he had a multi-point plan for doing so that included:
- reforming the 13 state agencies with sway over the markets.
- creating a regulatory structure based on "other states and the FERC standard market design" while eliminating incentives for "gaming" the regulatory system.
- investing in natural gas and transmission capacity.
- encouraging conservation.
- creating reserve requirements for generators.
- addressing "overpriced legacy power purchase agreements."
How much of that he actually did or was really necessary depends on whom you ask. No one really talks about power purchase agreements anymore, the regulatory structure in the state hasn’t truly changed all that much, but there has been movement in both transmission capacity and conservation. And he combated global warming like no Republican in history, in or out of the Golden State. In fact, last month, he was named 2010 Green Governor of the Year by the Beautiful Earth Group and Opportunity Green.
When accepting the award, Governor Schwarzenegger said, "California is showing the world that you can protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time. We are creating a new economic foundation for the 21st Century built on clean fuel, clean energy and clean cars that is turning California into the green capital of the nation and the world, and I couldn't be more proud of these accomplishments.”
Despite the California greening, the BBC reported today that Shcwarzenegger’s “political star has faded” since he came into the scene with approvals hovering in the 20 percentile range (rather close to Davis’ when he was in such hot water in 2003). But, whether you think the Schawarzenegger was a driving force for energy change or was stagnated by other issues no longer matters, really, except in terms of his legacy. Today, he hands over the state driver’s seat to Democrat Jerry Brown, a former governor who first served from 1975 to 1983.
While it is likely that Brown will continue down Arnie’s greening power path (the environment and clean energy jobs were a part of his eight-point campaign platform), one thing’s for certain, though: The official reign of the Governator is over.
No word on whether Brown will have as fabulous a nickname as Arnie. Granted, in Brown's first round as governor, he was called "Governor Moonbeam" by one journalist for his liberal policies. Somehow, that just doesn't compare. In the nickname arena, the Governator may always remain supreme.
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