POLITICS: Governors Schwarzenegger and Pataki Stump For Clean Air Act, page 1

New York Governor George Pataki and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are pushing Congress and the Bush administration to protect key elements of the Clean Air Act. This comes as both the congress and the White House are mulling over changes to the law. Both Governors, who are moderate Republicans, are urging the senate to upgrade the act, not remove or reduce protections.

story.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON - New York Gov. George Pataki and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are pressing Congress to protect key parts of the Clean Air Act as lawmakers and the Bush administration seek to change the law.

The two moderate Republicans on Tuesday urged senators considering updating the act not to reduce the powers states have now to enforce environmental regulations or create tougher state regulations.

The governors, who both place great emphasis on their environmental initiatives, wrote to members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider changes to the Clean Air Act.

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Its an interesting political event here. You have two currently popular moderate "blue state" Republicans. If the Democrats as it seems move thier party more to the center, and chip away at "red states" the moderate wing of the GOP may assume a greater prominence within the party. Or you may see the beginnings of a rift between the liberal and moderate GOP elements versus the right wing of the party. Despite the unity that was achieved during the election, there is internal strife within the party factions. The recent housecleaning in the congress committee leadership is only but one sign of this. As the more right wing elements take control, you may start to see some defections that will help the Democrats if they can get thier act together as well.