California's Governor Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger, returning to British Columbia, after last starring in the action film "The Sixth Day", talked up the province's "new gold rush" worth tens of billions of dollars for companies taking a stake in the booming green energy sector, at an economic summit today in Vancouver.Schwarzenegger said his state is eager to strike relationships with businesses that can help California meet tough new emission standards adopted last year.
The action movie star/body builder was joined on stage by BC Premier Gordon Campbell, as the West Coast dynamic duo signed a memorandum of understanding committing California and BC to work together to cap greenhouse gas emissions, and to join other US and Canadian jurisdictions in building a 'hydrogen highway' between the province and the state.
"The ports of Los Angeles for instance and Long Beach are buying right now trucks with natural gas engines that are made by a British Columbia company," said Schwarzenegger. "These engines are helping us meet our emission standards, and a California company has seized this opportunity to build stations to fuel those trucks. That's how we are working together."
"Ladies and gentlemen we have the opportunity once again. The Wall Street Journal has just said that our new fuel standard has companies eager to supply low carbon products to California's $50-billion annual transportation fuel market. They call it California's new gold rush.
"With your willingness to be innovative in clean technology, you are poised to start British Columbia's new gold rush."
