Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the typical Republican that's walking the streets today. He's not a Right Wingnut. He doesn't do Tea Party rallies nor shout about state secession or sue the U.S. Government over the Constitutionality of Health Care Reform. In fact, all in all, he's very pragmatic and he's done a decent job as Governor of California. Even though he helped kick Grey Davis out of office, something I disagreed with because I knew recalling Grey Davis was a scam forced on California by the Bush Administration, with the help of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and buddies in Texas, such as Enron, I'm glad we got Arnie. In spite of G. W. Bush's hopes of "a man in California," he didn't get his wish.
One of Governor Schwarzenegger's major accomplishments is California's Environment Law passed a few years ago that limits and reduces greenhouse gas emissions in California. Clean air is the issue and the law cleans the air. Since then a whole new industry has sprouted in California with lots of money invested in it. A Green Industry. New research and development. New companies. Lots of jobs and more coming. So, why are the Koch (pronounced Coke) Brothers, from Kansas City, and the Valero Energy and Tesero Corporations from San Antonio, Texas fighting to suspend California's law as this article, California Braces for Showdown on Environmental Law - NYTimes.com indicates? It's because they are going to lose money, a lot of money, if California continues to enforce the law and regulate these companies. It's ironic that Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, eleven miles from where I live, isn't joining those against clean air. But, Chevron has changed in the past few years. It seems to have gotten on board with environmental concerns. Maybe it's because they live here and want clean air to breath too, but we'll see whether they will put money over clean air.
So, the Kochs, who are Tea Party supporters, Valero and Tesero are putting lots of money into Proposition 23 to suspend California's Environmental Law. "They" claim the current law will hurt the nation, cause the loss of lots of jobs and increase energy costs. And, like the Tea Party, it's all a bunch of crap. Here we go again. Like Prop 8, that passed and changed California's Constitution and has cost California millions in the courts, and Prop 16 that thankfully failed because it would have made PG&E a monopoly in the state and would have cost power customers millions more in higher energy costs, Prop 23 is all bunk. In fact, going back to the energy guzzling, polluting days will keep energy costs high. That's because California requires a special blend of gasoline, unlike any other state. We can't get our gasoline from just any oil company, and that's because most oil companies don't use the formula our law requires. The result is that California has the highest priced gasoline in the nation. And, the oil companies that do use the right formula and sell their gasoline in California make a ton of money doing it. Valero, Tesero and the Koch owned petroleum company Flint Hills Resources refine and sell their products in California. Our energy costs are already high and that's what makes alternate energy sources, such as Green energy, solar panels, high mileage hybrid cars and wind so competitive with those who don't want Green. Green will lower our energy costs in California, and, of course, put Velero, Tesero and the Koch Brothers in a tighter bind. Their California based refineries will have to spend some money to clean up their plants and their pollution.
California may be a mess in a lot of areas, but the Environmental Law we have is one of the best in the nation. It will create a new industry, more jobs and increase revenue to the state like no other thing we can do. It will also decrease energy costs in the long run. We need to keep it. We need to defeat Prop 23.
Dave
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