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This summer's record-breaking heat has put global warming at center stage - with the slew of Live Earth concerts and inescapable pontifications by Al Gore. Most Republicans, however, seem to be watching from the wings. But Florida's new G.O.P. Governor, Charlie Crist, hopes to erase that impression starting today with a major international summit in Miami on climate change, featuring California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Kennedy...
...Schwarzenegger-led movement to pull the party back toward the center - and few issues highlight that determination more than global warming. At the summit's close, Crist - who plans to install solar panels at the Governor's mansion in Tallahassee next week - will sign an executive order making Florida the latest of a dozen states to adopt California's stringent standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It requires 2009 model cars sold in Florida to cut those emissions by 25% and utilities to cut them to 1990 levels by 2025. "Look at Florida's enormous tourist industry - our economy...
...Kennedy, also hopes it will promote what he says is a sorely needed bipartisan approach on global warming, as well as provide a nudge to recalcitrant conservatives who still consider the global warming science murky or are simply opposed to the kind of measures states like California and now Florida are promulgating. The summit "should help America move forward on the issue," says Crist, "and it might encourage our friends at the federal level to do more...
...insisting that such orders were the exclusive purview of the federal government. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has barred California and the other states that have followed its example (including New York) from enforcing the new codes. The states have since petitioned for special waivers - Crist says Florida will join that effort - something the EPA is supposed to rule on this fall...
...Bush in recent months has said "some very positive things" about acknowledging climate change. "I sense and see some modification" in Bush's outlook, says Crist, which he hopes will be furthered by events like his global warming summit, which could help bolster Republican chances in electoral vote-rich Florida. "Like a good offensive line pushing down the field," says Crist, a former college football player, "eventually you knock down the door and you build consensus...