Texas Wants to Mess with California's Climate Laws

by Chris Santiago · 2010-03-10 15:49:00 UTC
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Who is behind a November ballot initiative aimed at gutting California's trailblazing Clean Air laws? Big oil companies from the Lone Star state.

Texas-based Valero and Tesoro have pledged $2 million to back an effort to collect signatures and create a ballot initiative that would indefinitely suspend Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB32. That's chump change for them, but a significant throw-down to those of us who actually live in the Golden State and want the clean tech jobs to keep coming.

You see, AB32 is already working. The law has spurred the nation's first cap-and-trade program, investment dollars in the clean tech sector, improved emissions monitoring and green building standards, and numerous other actions which have created jobs, and the potential for jobs, for many Californians.

Where California goes, the rest of the country often follows, which is exactly what these Texas oilmen are so afraid of. A coalition of public, business, and environmental groups called Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs is ramping up efforts to stave off this unwelcome Texas Two Step.

Unfortunately, it's going to take fire to fight fire: Valero and Tesoro, to say nothing of the anti-environment zealots who drafted the initiative, have deep pockets. The unique California laws that make it possible for voters (and corporations) to take their issues directly to the polls aren't the dream of direct democracy fulfilled. Instead, in this new era of unchecked corporate funds flooding elections, ballot initiatives are a free-for-all for the well-funded.

The last time a big Texas energy company meddled with California, it almost bankrupted the state. (Does the name Enron ring a bell?) My Texas-based brother and I go back and forth playfully about our interstate rivalry, but when it gets down to it, we both agree: Let the people of Texas do what they want in their own state, and vice versa.

Tell these guys that if they don't like California laws, that's fine with us: They're welcome to pollute in Texas.

Photo Credit: docentjoyce

Chris Santiago is a freelance writer and editor. He most recently worked at McGraw-Hill and "got green" at Oberlin College.
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