SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, stood side by side Tuesday to cheer the extension of one of the most ambitious programs in the U.S. to reduce fossil fuel pollution, while condemning President Donald Trump’s failure to see climate change as a deadly threat.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican, joined Brown, a Democrat, for the ceremony where the governor signed legislation to extend a program limiting emissions of climate-changing carbons.
Within view of San Francisco’s skyscrapers on Treasure Island, a man-made, low-lying island threatened by rising seas from climate change, the signing was full of open rebukes for Trump, who withdrew the United States from the global Paris accord that seeks to cut carbon emissions.
“America is fully in the Paris agreement. There’s only one man that dropped out,” Schwarzenegger said of Trump on Tuesday. “America did not drop out.”
Schwarzenegger also pointed to the bipartisan support that lawmakers in the Democrat-dominated Legislature gave to extending the cap-andtrade program by 10 years.
“This is a very important message, message that we have a functional government in California where Democrats and Republicans work together,” he said.
The program puts a limit on carbon emissions and requires polluters to obtain permits to release greenhouse gases.