California's Landmark Clean Air Legislation Threatened by Prop 23

Those against the legislation include Nature Conservancy and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Courtesy: CalBuzz.com

(BERKELEY, Calif.) - If passed, California's Proposition 23 would Suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Act of 2006. The item is on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California as an initiated state statute.

AB 32, know as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after clearing the California State Legislature. It is California's landmark clean air legislation.

Proposition 23 would freeze the provisions of AB 32 until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters. California's unemployment rate, which currently hovers around 12%, has been at 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters just three times since 1980, according to Wikipedia.

AB 32 forces California to cut greenhouse gas emission levels in the state to 1990 levels, by 2020. The process is set to begin in 2012.

Based on the latest campaign finance filings published by the California Secretary of State supporters of Prop. 23 received a total of $7,000 in contributions from several different petroleum marketers associations.

However, according to figures gathered by MapLight and released today, large contributions to the opposing side keep rolling in and the figures are sizable.

They include $300,000 from the Nature Conservancy and $700,000 from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Records with the California Secretary of State show supporters of Prop. 23 receiving a total of $500k from the Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company. Tesoro has now given just over $2 million, the second largest contributor behind Valero ($4 million) to support Prop. 23.

Proposition 23 would suspend AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which is set to be implemented January 1, 2012.

Contributors who support and oppose the ballot initiative:

In their campaigns for and against Proposition 23, supporters and opponents have each adopted nicknames for the measure that clarify what they think of it. Supporters call Proposition 23 the California Jobs Initiative and opponents call it the Dirty Energy Proposition.

Experts predict that total campaign spending on Prop 23 could beat the $154 million record that was set in 2006 by Proposition 87.

The League of Conservation Voters transferred $300,000 from their Prop. 23 campaign to oppose Prop. 26 on Tuesday, bringing total contributions against Prop. 26 to almost $3.5 million. Supporters of Prop. 26 have raised just over $14 million. See the latest contribution updates on the MAPLight.org  Prop. 26 page.

Data Source:

All campaign finance figures are based on information published by the California Secretary of State.

MAPLight.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that provides citizens and journalists the transparency tools to shine a light on the influence of money on politics.