National Battle Brewing Over Cal's Climate Law

California has been a trailblazer in environmental regulation, and has generally made it look easy.

Its sweeping climate law, AB32, was a benchmark even in the greenest state. Up to now, implementation has proceeded apace. A green building standard was approved; a cap-and-trade regime was established — though not implemented; and emissions monitors have begun to be installed around the state.

But, spurred by obscure Republican state legislator Dan Logue, a battle is now brewing over the law that will likely get very, very ugly.

In California, almost any legal matter can be put directly before the voters as a ballot measure. Which sounds like democracy in action until you see how misleading ad campaigns — which can now, thanks to an activist right-wing Supreme Court, draw unlimited funding from the corporations the laws would affect — push public opinion toward small-mindedness and economic fears. Out-of-state funding also often drives the debate.

Prop 8 is a well known example, but perhaps a more pointed example in this case is Prop 87, which would have taxed oil and gas companies on the resources they pulled from the state and invested the money in clean energy. Oil and gas companies poured money by the tanker-load into the campaign, convincing voters that it would cause their gas prices to go up. Funny thing about that: The law specifically forbade companies from passing the cost of the tax onto consumers.

Logue's battle against AB32 is being piloted by the Orwellian-monickered People's Advocate, a group that specializes in manipulating Californians into populist votes that hurt them in the long run: It was behind the notorious Prop 13, which capped property taxes and has hamstrung the state budget process every year since.

"We are on fire," Logue told the L.A. Times. "People are calling from all over the country. This will be the most intense campaign the state has seen in 50 years."

The hit on AB32 will portray the measure as a job-killer. Indeed, Logue initially tried to call his repeal the California Jobs Initiative, a ploy that Attorney General Jerry Brown has already nixed. The repeal would remain effective until the state's unemployment rate dipped below 5.5 percent — where it hasn't been since the recession began — and stayed there for at least a year.

Never mind that all the evidence suggests that greening the state's economy has and will continue to create jobs.

If that's not enough evidence that rhetoric trumps reality in this campaign, talk radio has taken to referring to the emissions-reduction law as "the global-warming final solution act" promoted by "fascist, Nazi" officials.

Photo credit: Nickton