Californians Beat Back Big Oil, Save Clean Energy Program
While voters in the rest of the country were clamoring to take the country back(ward), Golden State voters showed a steady commitment to the future last night.
The state handily defeated Prop 23, the ballot measure, bankrolled by Texas oil money, that would have rolled back the state’s ambitious clean-energy targets, which are designed to cut the California’s global warming emissions by 30 percent by 2020.
It’s impressive that voters, even amid double digit unemployment in the state, weren’t swayed by Valero and Tesoro’s scare campaign that equated green energy to economic ruin. But even more stunning is that the No on 23 campaign not only matched the oil money dollar-for-dollar — they outspent the dirty-energy interests by nearly three to one.
Climate action may be dead in the water in the newly divided congress, but the Western dream of a clean-energy economy still has life.
“The one great thing about California,” said the outgoing Governator last night, “is we never wait for Washington.”
RELATED: