Californian vote inspire China to fight dirty energy
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Amid the wasteland of the US midterm election results, there were a few glimmering spots of hope for progressives.
One of them was the massive defeat in California of Proposition 23, an oil industry-backed initiative that was designed to cripple the state's clean energy initiative, the "Global Warming Solutions Act" of 2006, aka "AB 32."
Opponents called it the "Dirty Energy Prop," while proponents labeled it the "California Jobs Initiative."
The proposition would have suspended AB 32 until California's unemployment rate dropped below 5.5 percent for a year, in a cynical move designed to link anti-environmentalism to job protection.
With unemployment running at 12.4 percent, Prop 32 would have effectively killed AB 32, which brought California, unlike much of the US, into line with the Kyoto Protocol.
Thankfully, Californians saw through these moves and rejected the proposition by an overwhelming margin of 61 percent against to 38 percent for.
Like so many issues in US politics, this turned into a battle of funding as much as a clash of issues. Supporters of the proposition included Texas-based oil companies like Valero and Tesoro, while opponents, who raised twice that amount, included philanthropists like Bill Gates and Tom Steyer, environmental groups, and businesses with an interest in clean technologies.
The last major environmental ballot issue, 2006's Proposition 87, designed to tax oil extracted in California and reduce petroleum consumption, saw $154 million being spent on advertising.
In comparison, total campaign funding for the entire UK general election a year beforehand was $61 million.
Two thirds of Prop 87's money came from oil companies opposed to the initiative, which was eventually defeated by a 53 percent to 47 percent vote.
This time, however, Big Oil saw the writing on the wall and didn't throw vast amounts of money into a campaign doomed to fail.
The vote is a victory for anyone interested in the future of the planet. California is the sixth largest economy on earth, and carbon initiatives like AB 32 are vital if global warming is going to be slowed down and eventually halted.
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