California Environmental Technologies Provide Dynamic Backdrop for Governor's Bold Policy Announcement on Climate Change

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Scheduled to Make California the Nation's Most Aggressive State in Reducing Emissions That Cause Global Warming

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 -- California companies and institutions representing a cross section of the state's innovative environmental technologies are expected to join Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and dozens of world and business leaders in kicking off United Nations World Environment Day and demonstrating the important role businesses and technology play in reducing greenhouse gases and protecting the environment.

Eight companies and two academic/research institutions will participate in the California Clean Technology exhibit at San Francisco City Hall to showcase how the innovative technologies they're developing and the practices they're employing in their everyday business operations are helping make California a global environmental leader.

The exhibit offers a fitting backdrop for a bold and far-reaching policy announcement that Gov. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to make about the state's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next 45 years. Greenhouse gases are largely blamed for the depletion of the earth's ozone layer and global warming.

The California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, an independent statewide economic development group, organized the clean technology exhibit to showcase some of California's leading environmental technologies and scientific research centers to world leaders visiting the opening day of the U.N.-sponsored event. The Governor is scheduled to tour the exhibit with several mayors from cities around the world just prior to delivering his policy announcement.

   The presenters in the Clean Technology exhibit include:

   *  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is pushing the frontiers
      of science in the development of energy technologies; and University
      of California at Berkeley, whose pioneering research is helping reduce
      energy consumption worldwide;

   *  Catholic Healthcare West, the first hospital system to join
      California's Climate Action Registry;

   *  PowerLight, the nation's leading provider of large-scale,
      grid-connected solar electric systems;

   *  Toyota Motor Company USA
, the world leader in hybrid
   vehicles;
   
   *  KB Home
, a national builder of premier homes using new
   environmental technologies;
   
   *  Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc.
, a
   developer of alternative fuel systems and vehicles for consumers,
   aerospace and industry;
   
   *  AeroVironment, a developer of clean, unmanned airplanes and energy
   systems that help its customers work more safely and productively;
   
   *  Amonix, a maker of high-concentration photovoltaics systems; and
   
   *  EDAW, an environmental consulting and landscape architecture firm that
   is helping to restore rivers and wetlands and build sustainable cities
   worldwide.

"The presenters in the Clean Technology exhibit are demonstrating technologies and techniques that are wholly or partially created in California," said Mark Mosher, executive director of the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth. "They also demonstrate that the goals of protecting the environment and growing jobs aren't mutually exclusive but wholly compatible."

Berkeley Lab Director Steven Chu, a 1997 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, views the collaboration between the Lab and UC Berkeley as an important and catalytic element in the quest for ultimate energy security. Scientific research conducted by California institutions, such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley, play an integral part in the state's leadership in energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. Director Chu and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will explain how achievements in nanoscale science, computing, synthetic biology and chemistry are leading to energy solutions never before thought possible -- including the possible creation of new synthetic fuels that substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

"The intellectual leadership of University of California and our state's other major research universities, and national laboratories like Berkeley Lab positions California to be an international leader in environmental stewardship," said Commission Co-Chair Warren Hellman. "The technologies that the Governor will tour and showcase on Wednesday demonstrate how partnerships among government, business and academic and research institutions work to solve problems as big as global warming."

UN World Environment Day is the premier international event to stimulate awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and public awareness.

The California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth is an independent, member-supported California nonprofit corporation that works to attract and retain employers and jobs in California and to market the state across the country and around the world as a place to do business, visit, invest and buy products and services.