To the pro-prop 23 crowd: Please cite a single environmental regulation that, after going into effect, caused widespread economic damage. BigOil/BigPollution always whines about the sky falling any time a new environmental regulation is proposed, but has there ever been an environmental reg that caused serious damage to the economy?
I can cite plenty of instances where deregulation led to catastrophe (Gulf Oil Spill, mining disasters, and almost complete destruction of the economy due to financial deregulation). Can the pro-prop-23 crowd even cite one environmental regulation that led to economic catastrophe?
By the way, those of you that are characterizing this as a liberal-conservative, left-right issue are idiots:
Campaign finance records show that the No campaign has attracted big donations from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, New York hedge fund managers, national environmental groups and green technology executives.
John Doerr, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and his wife, Ann, have given $2 million to the No campaign. Wendy Schmidt, a philanthropist and wife of Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, donated $500,000 while Lucy Southworth, a Stanford doctoral student and wife of Google co-founder Larry Page, contributed $100,000. Members of San Francisco’s Fisher family, founders of the Gap clothing chain, have donated more than $ 1 million.
More than $800,000 has come from activists who work on behalf of low-income communities afflicted by pollution.
Blue Shield of California, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Waste Management and other mainstream corporations have also contributed to the No effort.
This is more accurately characterized as a battle between the ‘green energy’ industry and the old, dirty ‘fossil fuel’ industry. This is a battle between the future (clean, green energy) and the past (think Dick Cheney, Standard Oil, smog so thick you can’t see 50 feet in front of you, an oil spill from 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara that still spews tar balls onto the beach, and destruction of the entire Gulf Coast environment and economy).
If you are in favor of sucking in cancer-causing fumes from companies like BP that destroy entire areas of the country, please vote yes on Prop 23. If you are in favor of keeping California at the forefront of the technological revolution, be sure to vote No on Prop 23.
