Where California leads, America often follows. But the golden state has been losing its shimmer as it has shed jobs, and unemployment woes are being played in an attempt to suspend California’s climate legislation.
A petition to suspend the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32) is being circulated by an anti-tax group called the California Jobs Initiative, and is funded mainly by three Texas-based oil companies. Valero Energy Corp. has given $500,000 and Tesoro Corp. and World Oil Corp. have each given $100,000. Their support for the petition likely reflects their belief that suspended Californian legislation would have a knock-on effect on a national climate regime, whose implementation would likely result in higher costs for oil producers and refiners.
Assembly Bill 32 is considered to be a significant piece of legislation that seeks to return California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and that initiates a state-wide cap-and-trade system in 2012. The bill is pivotal for California’s participation in emissions trading through the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), and is also considered to be a driving force behind federal greenhouse gas regulations. Its suspension would cripple California’s climate leadership, and would be a setback for the WCI.
Signatures from the petition are also being collected members of the hyper-libertarian Tea Party, whose opposition to the legislation was seen last year when 10,000 “Tea Party Patriots” converged on the capitol demanding an end to “eco-tyranny” by retracting the climate change bill.
If enough petition signatures are collected, a referendum will be held concurrently with November’s gubernatorial election, when the new Governor of California will be chosen. The ballot question would ask Californians if they wanted the state to “abandon the implementation” of its 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act until unemployment stays at or below 5.5% for a year. Unemployment in the state is currently hovering at about 12.5%.
A poll conducted in mid-2009 showed that support for action on climate change in California had slipped to 66% from 73% a year earlier, and that 46% of Californians supported delaying the implementation of climate legislation until the economy and state budget improved, up from 36% the year before. Since then, California’s unemployment rate has climbed even higher. When the bill was passed in 2006, unemployment was at 4.8%.
It is likely that petitioners will collect the 434,000 signatures required to launch the plebiscite on the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act. The outcome of a vote, and the opinions of a new state governor, will likely affect the WCI and impact a national climate change framework.
By Jeff Beyer, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
