Prop 23 Campaigners ‘Very Thankful’ For Out-Of-State Oil Companies’ Funding

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http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/14/environmental_groups_confront_oil_industry_backed

Environmental Groups Confront Oil Industry-Backed Attempt to Repeal California’s Landmark Emissions Law in Prop 23
No-on23

We turn to Proposition 23, a ballot initiative that would effectively repeal California’s landmark global warming emissions law. Two Texas oil companies with refineries in California, the Valero and Tesoro corporations, launched a campaign to suspend implementation of the law until state unemployment falls to 5.5 percent for at least one year. We speak to the leaders of two environmental organizations opposed to Proposition 23: Michael Brune of Sierra Club and Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network.


AMY GOODMAN: We move to another proposition, and that is Prop 23 here in California, is getting a great deal of attention, Prop 23. We’re going to be joined now, as we talk about Prop 23, by two leaders in the environmental community, a ballot initiative that would effectively repeal California’s landmark global warming emissions law. AB32, or the Global Warming Solutions Act, is the country’s strongest climate change law and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. It’s supposed to go into effect in, oh, 2012.

But two Texas oil companies with refineries in California, the Valero and Tesoro corporations, launched a campaign to suspend implementation of this law until state unemployment falls to 5.5 percent for at least one year. Unemployment in California is currently at 12 percent. Other supporters of Prop 23 include Kansas billionaires and Tea Party funders Charles and David Koch.

Opponents of Prop 23 include a wide array of environmental groups, as well green technology companies, hedge fund manager Thomas Steyer, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and Gap founder Robert Fisher. So far, opponents of Prop 23 have raised $16.3 million, nearly twice as much as supporters of the initiative.

This is a sampling of the ads on both sides of Prop 23.

NO ON 23 AD: California is outlining a clean energy future, a growing workforce of bright Californians who harness wind and solar power to move our state forward. But two Texas oil companies have a deceptive scheme to take us backwards. They’re spending millions pushing Prop 23, which would kill clean energy standards, keep us addicted to costly polluting oil and threaten hundreds of thousands of California jobs. Stop the job-killing dirty energy proposition. Vote no on 23.

YES ON 23 AD: I have enough bills, but now the politicians are putting a new energy tax on us to pay for California’s global warming plan. Yes on 23 stops the energy tax, preventing a 60 percent increase in electricity rates and higher gas prices, and saves more than a million jobs. I want to do my part on global warming. All Yes on 23 says is, let’s wait until people are back to work and we can afford it. Yes on 23, it’s common sense.

Save jobs. Stop the energy tax. Yes on 23.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I’m joined now in San Francisco by leaders of two environmental organizations opposed to Prop 23. Michael Brune is the executive director of Sierra Club and author of the book Coming Clean: Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal. Rebecca Tarbotton is the executive director of Rainforest Action Network.

By the way, Becky, well, congratulations on your new position as head of Rainforest Action Network.


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Yes On Prop 23 Campaigners ‘Very Thankful’ For Out-Of-State Oil Companies’ Funding

ThinkProgress filed this report from Sacramento, CA.

On Election Day, California voters will be asked to consider a ballot measure that would essentially scrap the state’s landmark clean energy legislation, passed with broad bipartisan support in 2006, which has helped the state create thousands of green jobs and become a global leader in green technology. The campaign behind the measure, known as Prop. 23, has been funded almost entirely by Texas-based oil companies Valero and Tesoro, Ohio-based Marathon energy, and Kansas-based Koch Industries, owned by right-wing megafunders Charles and David Koch.

Last month, the state’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blasted these out-of-state companies for meddling in California’s election, saying their involvement is motivated purely by “self-serving greed.” “Does anyone really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black oil hearts, are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect our jobs?” Schwarzenegger said, noting that proponents of the proposition say it will help create jobs.

Today, ThinkProgress attended a tea party rally in support of Prop. 23 outside the California Environmental Protection Agency in downtown Sacramento. The event was organized by the conservative anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a key player in the Yes on 23 campaign, along with the Northern California Tea Party Patriots, and the California Dump Truck Owners Association. When asked by ThinkProgress about the out-of-state oil funding, representatives from each organizations didn’t deny it — in fact they were very grateful for the help:


Watch a compilation of the protestors marching, Coupal, and Cavolt (Plowman asked not to be filmed):

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/14/prop-23-thankful-for-oil/

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