What Happens in California…

…might not stay in California.  Back in May, we told our Californian readers about the bald-faced attempt by (mainly) out-of-state oil companies to overturn the Golden State’s anti-pollution law, AB32.

It’s time to spread the word around a little, in case this particular plague starts coming east.  Forewarned is forearmed.

AB32, known as the ‘Global Warming Solutions Act’, enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Golden State.  It aims to reduce California’s carbon emissions by some 15% by 2020, without – contrary to the propaganda issuing from the ballot initiative orchestrated by those oil companies  – costing businesses or individuals thousands of dollars more on their electricity bills.

That ballot initiative, by the way, is known as Proposition 23, the ‘California Jobs Initiative’.  Catchy title, but you wouldn’t expect it to have a name like ‘Oil Company Profits Retention’ or ‘Pollution Maintenance’ initiative, would you?  And the organizers’ tactic – a proposal simply to put the law on hold until unemployment in the state drops and stays below 5.5% – would sound reasonable were it not for the fact that the law is expected to lead to substantial growth in clean energy jobs.  But why 5.5%?  Perhaps it’s because that figure has only been reached three times in the last thirty years, which would effectively put AB32 into abeyance for years to come.

Follow the Money

Most of the funding for Prop 23 is coming from Valero and Tesoro corporations of Texas ($1.5 million between them), California’s Occidental Petroleum ($300,000), the Adam Smith Foundation of Missouri ($498,000) and Koch Industries, the country’s largest funder of climate change denial groups.  In all, some 80% of the funding for Prop 23 is coming from outside the state.

So who has stepped up to the plate to defend AB32?  If you were thinking of environmental support groups and clean energy advocates like Solar Nation, you’d be right.  But supporters also include business organizations like the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the state’s largest gas and electric utility (PG&E), outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger and large-membership bodies like AARP, NAACP and the American Lung Association.  Altogether, there are about 400 local business, civic, labor and environmental organizations backing the bill.

Why all the Fuss?

And why do we consider this one state-level battle to be so important?  Firstly, it’s a good example of why voters should always ‘follow the money’ when researching ballot questions.  Are large oil companies from Texas and a mysterious Missouri foundation (which is almost certainly a front for money that would prefer to remain anonymous) so concerned with employment prospects in California that they would commit multiple millions of dollars to reversing a state law in the name of jobs?  No matter how many statistical analyses these groups produce to prove their arguments (all of which appear to have been debunked), it should be clear to voters that their opposition is more vested in their fear of a future in which carbon emissions are curtailed and renewable energy promoted.

Secondly, given the size of California’s economy and the state’s role as a leader in climate/clean energy activities, this battle could be seen as seminal for the whole country.  Have we reoriented our faith away from government and toward corporate America so completely that we would allow private companies to dictate what laws are or are not acceptable to them?  If relatively progressive California cannot keep much-needed legislation on the books that would address its manifest pollution problems and clean energy needs, how willing would lawmakers in New York, South Carolina, or Texas be to expend political capital on such a fight in their home state?

In an era when the U.S. Supreme Court has accorded an unprecedented degree of influence to corporations in the political sphere, California’s Proposition 23 could, if not properly understood by voters and rejected for its disingenuity, be a free pass for corporate pollution of more than one kind.  Then, in its inevitable viral spread across the country, it would be not so much a bellwether as a Judas goat.

Climate Progress reported at length on this issue here, and The Wonk Room detailed Koch Industries’ involvement in funding Prop 23 and junk climate ‘studies’ here.

In July, the Los Angeles Times delved into the Adam Smith Foundation here.