California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in to his second term today and, fittingly, the week’s inaugural celebrations highlighted green power. The governator, of course, has shown how a red politician in a blue state could win a landslide re-election by turning green. Thus, Thursday’s "Leading the Green Team" event was reportedly carbon neutral. Electricity was supplied by a generator powered by bovine biogas – methane extracted from cow manure at Joseph Gallo Farms using digester technology from Microgy. The company earlier this year signed a deal to supply bovine biogas to California utility PG&E (PCG). Additional power came from a second generator fueled by biodiesel made from soybean oil and a 3-kilowatt solar panel array from Silicon Valley company Akeena Solar. According to PG&E – a Schwarzenegger supporter and backer of California’s landmark global warming law – the alternative energy sources cut in half the greenhouse gases usually emitted at such events. To make the inaugural shindig completely carbon neutral, PG&E said it was purchasing carbon dioxide reductions from van Eck Forest, a Humboldt County woodland certified as a carbon sink. Now if they could just do something about the governor’s Hummers.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Cow-Powered, Biodiesel, Solar Inauguration
January 5, 2007 by Todd Woody
Green Wombat 
Just imagine if they could harvest all the wind generated by a roomful of politicians talking.
Ba-doom-cha-chaaaaa.
This truly is a big story if you really think about it. The fact that a well-known public figure has taken such steps suggests is further proof that the environmental movement is growing beyond its leftist/alternative roots and going mainstream. Schwarzenegger isn’t the first public figure to go this route, but he is the most notable due to his position as governor.
On a lighter note, I second Gordon’s comments!
Finally, the leftist movement which is the vanguard of society is going mainstream.
I can wait to see 1 million solar roofs installed in California in the next 8 years.