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Just six months after taking office, Gov. Charlie Crist has leaped to the forefront of an issue his predecessors rarely mentioned: global warming.
His two-day summit on the issue last week drew 600 participants. He was written up in Time and interviewed on the CBS Early Show. Environmental groups sang his praises, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called him "another great action hero."
How did the Republican governor suddenly become the Climate Change Crusader? He credits three people with spurring his involvement: St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, Florida Wildlife Federation president Manley Fuller and former California Environmental Protection Agency chief Terry Tamminen.
They educated Crist on the issue and galvanized him to launch far-reaching changes in the state's energy policies: cutting power plant emissions, requiring the use of alternate fuels and rewriting the building code to require more energy efficiency. He also signed agreements with the United Kingdom and Germany to work together.
"It's really borne fruit," Fuller said. "He really took to this."
Crist's initiative is more sweeping than those of the dozen or so other governors who have tackled the issue.
"What is it different here in Florida is the level of action the governor has announced right off the bat," said Tom Peterson, executive director of the Center for Climate Strategies, a nonprofit group that works with states on warming.
Crist's participation in cutting greenhouse gases is crucial to saving the planet, Peterson said, because American states produce more greenhouse gases than many nations. They are "the big kids on the block," he said.
"And Florida," he said, "is one of the biggest."
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