95 percent accurate*

Standing by his green rhetoric

New Ventura County Sen. Tony Strickland, who ran this fall as a "renewable energy businessman" promising to promote the development of alternative energy, has taken the first step to show that he meant what he said.

Strickland told me last month that he does not agree with the provision in his fellow legislative Republicans' budget proposal that calls for a delay in implementing California's landmark global warming law. That regulations to implement that law, AB 32, call for aggressive steps to promote alternative energy, including a requirement that utilities purchase a third of their electrical power from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy.

Furthermore, Strickland said he intends to soon introduce a package of clean-energy legislation.

During the campaign, Strickland told me that he could not point to a single thing he did to promote renewable energy during his six years in the Assembly from 1999-2004. It was only after that time, he said, that the weight of evidence convinced him that global warming was a real problem and that the development of alternative energy was not only environmentaly important but also something that could stimulate California's economy.

It will be interesting to watch as issues arise in the coming legislative session how far Sen. Strickland will be willing to stray from his Republican colleagues to support clean-energy policies.