Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes muscles to defend climate-change law | Environment | The Guardian

Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes muscles to defend climate-change law | Environment | The Guardian

It was his signature line from his days as an action hero: "I'll be back." Now Arnold Schwarzenegger's fight to protect his climate legacy is fuelling speculation that he is seeking a role as environmental defender on a bigger stage.

With just a week to go until Californians choose his successor as governor, Schwarzenegger has hurled himself into the campaign against the Proposition 23 ballot initiative brought by Texas oil refiners and the billionaire Koch brothers that would effectively kill off his climate change law, which requires 25% cuts in emissions levels by 2020.

He has called oil company executives and eco-entrepreneurs, visited investment bankers and held a fundraising event at his home, helping to build a huge cash advantage for the climate campaigners over the oil firms. He has lobbied Hollywood directors and used a Tweetcast to urge his 1.8 million followers to vote down the measure.

In so doing he has cast himself as a new kind of action man – Eco-defender – claiming that a defeat for Proposition 23 could finally put some steel in Washington's spine to act on climate. We need to go to Washington and say, 'Look what happened: because the oil companies spent money against you and threatened you, you backed off on energy policy and environmental policy'," he told ABC television. "What wimps! No guts!" During the Tweetcast, Schwarzenegger said: "Prop 23 is funded by Texan oil companies. And … they … happen to be the biggest polluters in California."