Dianne Feinstein campaigns with Barbara Boxer, praising her 'spine of steel'

[cal04]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/10/dianne-feinstein-campaigns-with-barbara-boxer.html

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Dalif.) campaigned in Silicon Valley on Monday with the state's senior U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, who described her fellow lawmaker as an effective partner with "a spine of steel."

The two senators spent the morning at a solar panel manufacturing company in San Jose that has been able to expand its operations in part through $37.5 million in manufacturing tax credits and a $5-million loan backed by the federal stimulus program. Boxer and Feinstein praised the 112-employee company, which plans to expand to as many as 1,000 employees over the next five years, as an example of a powerful partnership between the private sector and government that would allow the U.S. to compete in the clean-energy sector with other nations.

"We know that the whole world is going green, and there are very clear reasons for it," Boxer said after touring the manufacturing floor. "We must not settle for No. 2 when it comes to clean energy."

(snip)
Feinstein argued that the two Texas-based oil companies backing Proposition 23 "really want to stop" the kind of manufacturing that goes on at companies such as Stion: "If you want to kill these new jobs, you pass Proposition 23, and the incentive to produce green power is diminished and abandoned."