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# It’s not easy being green
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/its-not-easy-being-green-editor/
- Published: 2008-03-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:00:27.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Daniel Beattie Santa Monica*

It’s a shame or maybe it’s just plain disgusting. There is an obvious graft going on in Sacramento. The state’s leaders claim to be green, we have the greenest governor in the country. We were lucky enough to win green laws because of all the pollution that was pumped into the atmosphere years ago. The state’s lawmakers have already stripped these laws bare, are now going to kill these laws. This state should be a leader, not a mouthpiece for the oil companies. We have to get off our dependence of fossil fuels. Obviously, hybrids are an interim step, but there are so many more options. We have the technology to have cars powered by the sun there, here and everywhere.

Check out Plug-in America, or the city’s own fleet. This state could be a leader not a follower in the green energy movement. The Europeans have over-taken us. Germany mandated that 50 percent of all new construction include solar panels, and in the winter of 2007, Spain mandated that 100 percent of all new construction has to be green. Later in the year, Portugal followed suit. We need this industry here, in California.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 27, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032708.pdf?ref=smdp.com)