This is California!

By voting NO! on Prop 23, loud and clear, we have protected our state's pioneering climate change bill, the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32). And now that we've deflected this attack by polluting companies (largely funded by out-of-state oil interests), California will continue to develop its green economy, i.e. the economy of the future.

Tom Steyer, a hedge fund manager and co-chairman of the No on 23 campaign "attributes Prop 23's defeat to the difference in mentality in California, where voters saw the global warming law as paving the way to a new economy based on clean energy. 'Californians look forward and face the future with optimism,' he said. 'That is our M.O. This is a grass-roots movement, and the impetus is coming from the West, not from Washington.'" (Los Angeles Times)

Courtesy of Emily Humphreys, a "No on 23" campaigner and a friend. =D

"It's significant in that it shows that this was not a solid party line vote like it is in Washington, D.C.," said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for the No campaign. "The new coalition for clean energy is broad and bipartisan." (A different article in the LA Times on the significant support "No on 23" received among moderates and Republicans, illustrating major social consensus in our state on the importance of clean energy and the fight against climate change).

In California, we see an opportunity to innovate and lead, and we're not going to stop.

URLs:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/11/proposition-23-defeat-global-warming-climate-change-initiative.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/11/poll-moderate-republicans-reject-prop-23.html

It was a Golden State in a Golden Era

‎"What’s needed is not a revolution, but a restoration and a modernization of what California once had."

Good piece by David Brooks today about the "pro-market progressivism" in California that helped the state raise its living standards to the highest in the nation and supported an influential and expansive middle class.

"That kind of government existed for decades right here in California" through the 1960s, with leaders who were "pro-market and pro-business, but also progressive reformers. They rode a great wave of prosperity, and people flocked to the Golden State, but they used the fruits of that prosperity in a disciplined way to lay the groundwork for even more growth. They built an outstanding school and university system. [Which in the 1950s were once the best in the nation.] 

They started a series of gigantic public works projects that today are seen as engineering miracles. These included monumental water projects, harbors and ports, the sprawling highway system and even mental health facilities.

They disdained partisanship. They continually reorganized government to make it more businesslike and cost effective. “Thus,” the historian Kevin Starr has written, “California progressivism contained within itself both liberal and conservative impulses, as judged by the standards of today.”

My one quibble with this piece is the critique about the "environmentalists." There are ways of attaining development while upholding the state's environmental ethic -- ala Oregon and Washington. And it's false to say that only "wealthy" "coastal" people care about environmental standards. Celebrating the outdoors and caring for the natural world are part of California's DNA, alongside entrerpreneurship, agriculture and high-tech innovation.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/opinion/28brooks.html

I Love My State

Two nice pieces on how Republicans in California have to tread carefully when discussing climate change legislation, because two-thirds of voters (including over 70% of independents) support AB32, our state's pioneering climate change bill.

Global warming bill a lose-lose issue for GOP candidates (Los Angeles Times)
"Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have wavered on Proposition 23, trying to appease their conservative base without alienating independent voters ... Those voters tend to be fiscally conservative but socially and environmentally liberal"

In California, Climate Politics Are Tricky... For Republicans (The New Republic)
"Republicans are actually getting into trouble for opposing the state's climate law"

P.S. Remember to vote against Proposition 23, the naked attempt by oil companies (primarily Valero Energy Corp and Tesoro Corp) to gut AB32 and avoid paying for their pollution. I'll post a couple of editorials on that soon.

Luckily, other businesses are not lining up behind them. Indeed, "a number of well-funded tech companies in Silicon Valley want AB32 to go forward—they have a lot invested in the state's burgeoning renewable and efficiency industries." Even the California Chamber of Commerce has "said it will remain neutral, and the Bay Area Council and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group both oppose Prop 23."

Go California!