Capitol Alert reports that T. Boone Pickens, who has been pushing his own bailout plan, Prop 10, is sinking another $4 million to the Yes on 10 campaign:
T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oil tycoon behind Proposition 10, has doubled down on the alternative energy bond, plunging another $4 million into the measure through his company Clean Energy Fuels Corp.
Pickens' company was already the largest financier of the ballot measure, having given $3.75 million to the campaign. The measure would provide $5 billion in rebates to help promote natural gas vehicles, the types of vehicles that could be Pickens' company's customers.
The rebates would be paid for through a general obligation bond, repaid by the state over 30 years.
Just as Goldman Sachs is using the US Treasury to bail itself and its allies out (h/t to jsw), T Boone is seeking to raid an already-stressed California budget to help boost his natural gas business. We're already - and rightly - going to commit $10 billion in bond funds to Prop 1A, and even that is touch-and-go given public unease at the budget crisis and credit crunch. California cannot afford to give a handout to Oklahoma oil billionaires - we need to give that money to in-state, long-term, sustainable projects like high speed rail. |
