How green is my governor?

In the last three years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 24 out of 44 environmental bills that reached his desk, according to the California League of Conservation Voters. This year alone, he approved 19 of 28 bills plugged by a coalition of environmental groups. Here’s a sampling of signed and vetoed bills.

-- Swati Pandey

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Signed

Lead bullets: The bill prohibits the use of lead bullets in condor habitat because they might end up in the digestive tracts of the birds and poison them.

Toxic toys: The legislation makes California the first state in the nation to ban chemical compounds called phthalates used in plastic toys.

Light bulbs: The bill requires that the state set rules by 2009 to make indoor light bulbs 50% more energy efficient by 2018.

Solar water heating: A $250-million program -- funded by a surcharge on natural-gas bills -- will subsidize solar hot-water systems, with the goal of 200,000 installed in homes in 10 years.

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Vetoed

Green building standards: A package of bills that collectively would have required residential, commercial and state buildings to meet certain standards on energy efficiency and water usage, among other criteria. The governor said that the standards -- many devised by a Washington-based nonprofit group -- didn’t take into account the state’s earthquake and fire risks and would favor foreign building materials over those made in California.

Apartment recycling. The legislation would have required owners of apartment buildings to create recycling programs, which Schwarzenegger said would be too costly for the owners to implement.

Mining restrictions: The bill would have protected endangered and threatened species by restricting use in salmon and trout streams of a gold-mining technique that uses a roaring engine mounted on pontoons to suck gravel and sediment into a sluice box, where the ore settles. The governor said existing laws already do that, and that more study is needed.