For weeks on end we have watched our dependence on Big Oil cause the greatest environmental disaster this country has ever seen. We have been horrified by pictures like this. We have been saddened by the stories of all of the Gulf Coast residents who have lost their jobs and are now struggling to make ends meet. And we have been angered by the ineptitude of the BP executives who allowed this tragedy to happen and could not care less if the Gulf Coast ever recovers.
The attitude of corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility has once again reared its ugly head, this time in the state of California, where on Monday, a deceptive ballot initiative called the California Jobs Initiative qualified for the state's November ballot.
The California Jobs Initiative is being brought to California's voters by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, whose previous work includes Proposition 13, which many Californians believe is largely responsible for the demise of California's education system. Naturally, now that California's once world-class education system is drowning in the gutter, the next target for this selfish interest group is California's revolutionary environmental law,AB 32.
California Republican Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman supports the California Jobs Initiative. If elected, Whitman has pledged to suspend AB 32 on her first day in office. The initiative calls for delaying the regulations mandated by AB 32 until the state's unemployment rate, which is currently around 12% drops to 5.5% for four consecutive quarters. Supporters of the initiative claim that AB 32 is a job killer and will hurt businesses that are trying to recover from the current economic crisis.
Proponents of the California Jobs Initiative also argue that California needs to take a "dramatically less aggressive approach" for dealing with the climate crisis. But ignoring the severity of the climate crisis and the inevitable effects that it will have not only on our environment but also our economy will only cause bigger problems for the state in the future.
Almost 90% of the funding for the California Jobs Initiative comes directly from oil companies and more than 70% of that money comes from Texas-based oil companies like the Tesoro Corporation and the Valero Corporation. According to the Sierra Club,Valero and Tesoro are responsible for 16.7% of California's overall greenhouse gas emissions.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement Tuesday that the California Jobs Initiative is
"sponsored by greedy Texas oil companies" and "would cripple California's fastest growing economic sector, reverse our renewable energy policy and and decimate our environmental progress for the benefit of these oil companies' profit margins."
Conversely, AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which was authored by California State Senator Fran Pavley(D-Santa Monica), passed in 2006 and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, directed the state's Air Resources Board to start producing early actions to reduce greenhouse gasses and also devise a plan to help the state reduce its 2020 levels of greenhouse gas emissions to those of the year 1990.
At an event on Wednesday in San Francisco, Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope, several leaders from environmental organizations and San Francisco Mayor and California Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom spoke in opposition of the California Jobs Initiative. Mayor Newsom commented that
"this deceptive dirty energy proposition will be an economic and environmental policy disaster for California, just as the BP oil spill is to the states along the Gulf of Mexico."
The city of San Francisco in particular, took the ideas put forth in AB 32 and ran with them. Under the leadership of Mayor Newsom, San Francisco reached and independently verified a 7% reduction of greenhouse gas pollution below the state's 1990 levels, making San Francisco the first city in California to register emissions through the California Climate Action Reserve. In addition, San Francisco has been on the forefront of creating green-collar jobs and helping its residents green their property.
The environmental successes of cities like San Francisco have proven that AB 32 is not destroying jobs, it is creating them. It is not costing us money; rather, it is helping us save money by helping Californians reduce their energy usage. Instead of living in the past by ignoring the current global environmental crisis, AB 32 is addressing the future head-on by helping to ensure that the future generations of Californians are environmentally conscious.
Instead of continuing to bow down to the oil companies (and the politicians who support them) who have proven to us, time and time again that they are only concerned about their profits, it is time for Californians to stand up for the environment, for green-collar jobs and for innovation.
As Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope said today
"Californians cannot allow two Texas oil companies and their deep pockets to spend millions to kill off this job-creating growth so we remain addicted to fossil fuels.”
We must break the cycle and end our addiction to fossil fuels so that
this never happens again. We must save AB 32. Click here to join the campaign.