THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:Cold to global warming

Huntington Beach Rep. Dana Rohrabacher hasn’t been in step with President Bush on issues such as immigration, but he stuck closer to Bush this week in his comments on climate change.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hobnobbed with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Long Beach earlier this week to talk about how to reduce emissions that some consider responsible for global warming. In response, Rohrabacher’s office sent out a press release offering his take on “the myth of human-caused global warming.”

“There’s obvious evidence that we’re going through a warming trend in the Earth’s history, as we’ve gone through many cycles of warming and cooling throughout the hundreds of millions of years of global history,” Rohrabacher said by phone Wednesday while relaxing on the beach in Newport with his family.

People only contribute about 5% of the total amount of greenhouse gases, he said, adding that more such emissions come from natural sources such as termites eating plants in rain forests.

“It’s very questionable whether greenhouse gases are causing global warming, by the way,” Rohrabacher said. “If you believe what the global warming people say about greenhouse gases causing this, what you really want to do is bulldoze all the rain forests and plant young trees Â… because that’s where most of the greenhouse gases come from.”

Global warming alarmists simply want to control people’s lifestyles and expand government powers, he said. And while that view may seem like the minority in Washington, “I think there’s a lot of people who don’t open their mouths,” he said.

CITIES LOOK TO GET TOGETHER

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa officials on Wednesday held the first of several meetings to try to hammer out a comprehensive solution to the two cities’ annexation concerns. Not much was decided, except that the various parties — including representatives of the county and several unincorporated areas adjacent to Newport-Mesa — will meet again Aug. 18.

Meanwhile, the Santa Ana Country Club and residents in a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive, two of the areas in question, plan to file an application within two weeks to be put into Newport Beach’s “sphere of influence,” giving that city the first right to provide services and request annexation.

Wednesday’s discussion was at the order of the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides annexation issues and has been asked by the county to get unincorporated islands annexed to cities.

The two cities failed to agree in earlier negotiations, and Newport’s subsequent request to annex West Santa Ana Heights was tabled by the commission in July. Costa Mesa and Newport Beach officials were told to talk out their issues, which include the country club, the area south of Mesa Drive and Banning Ranch.

Residents blocked a previous attempt to bring the Mesa Drive neighborhood into Costa Mesa with a protest vote and have threatened the same in the future.

By filing an application to move from Costa Mesa’s sphere to Newport’s, residents aren’t trying to flout the negotiating process, said Paul Watkins, who attended the meeting on behalf of the country club and the neighborhood south of Mesa Drive.

“We’re just going forward with what we have for a long time intended to do,” Watkins said.

IRVINE, WE’LL SEE YOU IN COURT

Newport Beach officials may still consider legal action to block Irvine from proceeding with developments Newport thinks have been inadequately studied, despite some positive steps by Irvine.

The Irvine City Council voted on July 25 to have a full environmental study done of proposed zoning for the Irvine Business Complex on Jamboree Road. Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said that’s a step in the right direction, but she’s still alarmed that Irvine has moved ahead with approving individual projects while the total effect of proposed development changes hasn’t been fully reviewed.

For example, Irvine’s council also recently approved a 445-condo development at 2323 Main St., Daigle said, and “they’ve got other projects teed up for approvalÂ…. We’re trying to advance our own quality of life, so we have to be vigilant about our borders.”

But Irvine Mayor Beth Krom said developers of the Main Street condos and other projects will have to do environmental studies that also consider cumulative effects of all the developments in the works.

“We absolutely want to evaluate all of the impacts to make sure that we’re moving forward in a balanced and intelligent way,” Krom said.

TERMS OF SUPERVISING

That November ballot just got a little longer. Orange County Supervisors on Tuesday decided to offer voters a measure that would change supervisors’ term limits from two consecutive terms to a total of three terms in their lifetime. The current four-year term limits, which were put in place in 1997, allow supervisors to serve two terms in a row, and after leaving office for a term they can run again.

SPEAK UP AND LEARN ABOUT GREENLIGHT

Speak Up Newport is holding an event Wednesday which will feature speakers for and against the growth control ballot measure Greenlight II.

The evening begins at 5 p.m. at the Newport Beach Yacht Club, 1099 Bayside Drive, Newport. Visit www.speakupnewport.org or call (949) 224-2266.