Just a few blocks from my apartment here in Monterey is a Valero gas station. They're all over the state of California, but this one is in a prominent location - just above Cannery Row, a common stop for tourists headed home to the Bay Area or the Central Valley or Southern California.
Those tourists come to Monterey to enjoy the natural beauty of this wonderful coastline. But little do they know that when they stop and buy Valero gas, whether here or anywhere else in the country, they are funding a right-wing effort to destroy the environment they came to enjoy.
That's because Valero, along with another Texas oil company, Tesoro, are the primary backers behind an effort to repeal California's landmark global warming solutions law, AB 32.
And we're going to stop them.
I, Robert Cruickshank, work at the Courage Campaign as the Public Policy Director. Alongside our friends at CREDO Action, we have decided it's time to take action against Valero and let them know there's a very real price to pay for messing with California's effort to stop global warming and reduce carbon emissions.
How? We're launching a boycott of Valero gas stations across the state and the nation.
Valero has spent over $500,000 to get an initiative on the November ballot in California that would "suspend" AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act approved in 2006. Signing AB 32 is perhaps the only positive thing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ever done.
It creates a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions, increases the state's fuel efficiency rules for vehicles, and mandates a series of new regulations to help slow down global warming in our state. It is by far the most progressive effort by any state to tackle the climate crisis, and is greener than what is currently under discussion in the US Senate.
California has plenty of incentive to act; doing nothing is not an option. State studies show that global warming will produce more drought, which in turn will create more intensive firestorms. It will devastate the state's agricultural and wine industries. It will lead to significant rises in sea level, threatening at least $100 billion of property being destroyed in just the SF Bay Area alone.
Of course, right-wingers don't think any of this is a problem. Republican candidate for California governor Meg Whitman shares Sarah Palin's view that action to stop global warming will somehow hurt the economy. Republican candidate for US Senate in California Carly Fiorina agrees and is even questioning the science behind global warming.
Both of them believe that AB 32 should be suspended. The notion of "suspension" is how the right plans to fight our global warming law, arguing that they'll just "suspend" AB 32 until unemployment reaches 5.5% for a full year. Trouble is, that's not expected to happen anytime soon, perhaps not for another 10 years. In the meantime, we lose precious opportunities to stop global warming and create the green jobs that will power our economy recovery.
Whereas Whitman and Fiorina are giving the public talking points against AB 32, it's Valero that is providing the money. Why are they doing this? CREDO's Adam Quinn asked Valero CEO Bill Klesse - and got this response:
From: Klesse, Bill
Date: Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: Stop Attacking CA AB 32
To: Adam Quinn
I assume you realize that we are discussing CO2. Many people do not realize this is a CO2 law. We are not willing to ruin our economy, our business, your life style and our country over AB-32.
Sent from my iPhone
Of course, Klesse is willing to ruin our economy, our business, our lifestyles, our coastline, and our very future in order to preserve his bottom line from the costs that AB 32 would impose on polluters like Valero. He doesn't care whether SF's Embarcadero or the Monterey Bay Aquarium are underwater with a rising sea level or if Napa Valley wineries can't keep growing grapes or if Southern California is plagued by stronger and more intensive fires because drought kills more trees and shrubs on the hillsides.
We thought about ways to respond to Klesse. And we kept coming back to the same point - the only way to effectively get his attention, to show him that Californians will not stand for this attack on their future - is to launch a boycott of Valero gas.
You can join the boycott by sending a message of your own directly to Valero CEO Bill Klesse. And we mean "directly" to him. The messages go straight to Klesse's inbox, and Klesse has already responded to at least one Courage Campaign member over email.
We're just at the launch phase of the Valero Boycott, something you'll be hearing about from us more and more as this grows. Join our boycott and let Valero's CEO know why you won't buy any more of his gas - that you reject his attack on our economy, our environment, and our future.
