At Wednesday night’s debate, Carly Fiorina refused to take a position on Proposition 23, the initiative backed by Texas oil companies and polluters that would stop state action on global warming (which Fiorina dismisses as “the weather”) and would devastate the green jobs industry:
Pilar Marrero: “…so I have a double question: what is your position in Prop 23 and do you think global warming is real, or is it just a problem with the weather?”
Fiorina: You know, the ad that you are referring to was really talking about national security and what are our priorities for national security, and I think that’s a very legitimate question to be asked of Senator Boxer who has been campaigning since 1992 on cutting our military budget in half, who believes that terrorists should be given the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. That is what that ad was about. We should always have the courage to examine the science. But all scientists agree on this: the only way to impact global warming is to act globally. A state acting alone will make no difference. What we need in this country, a priority of mine, if I am fortunate enough to gain the confidence of the voters of California, will be a national and comprehensive energy bill. And that means that AB 32 would be superseded. It should be. It would have been superseded by Barbara Boxer’s cap and trade bill, but her bill was completely the wrong track. It would have cost us trillions of dollars in lost economic output, millions of jobs, it doesn’t do enough to fund energy R&D. What we need to do in a comprehensive energy policy is fund energy R&D. We need to give more federal funding to Lawrence Livermore for example. We need to give more to Berkeley. We also need to take advantage in an environmentally responsible way of every source of energy we have including nuclear, wind, solar, and we have to acknowledge that we cannot put bills in place that punish excessively energy intensive industries like farming, like manufacturing, and like small business owners.
Moderator: Time is up but you didn’t answer part of Pilar’s question which is: do you support Prop 23 which would suspend AB 32?
Fiorina: My focus is on a national energy policy. Because that is…
Moderator: Yes or no? Just answer. Do you support it?
Fiorina: I have not taken a position on it yet, because I think what we are doing, there’s no question in my mind and there’s no question in people who have studied AB 32 that AB 32 is at the very least in the short-term a job killer, so why would we go forward, but what we need is national energy policy.
Boxer’s retort to Fiorina’s desperate desire to avoid the issue of Prop 23 was “if you won’t take a stand on Prop 23, what will you take a stand on?”
Today we learn that in the space of 48 hours, Fiorina’s hesitation has magically evaporated, and now she supports Prop 23. According to an email her campaign sent earlier today:
Proposition 23 (Suspends Implementation Of AB 32 Until Unemployment Drops To 5.5 Percent Or Less For Full Year): SUPPORT
“Proposition 23 is a Band-Aid fix and an imperfect solution to addressing our nation’s climate and energy challenges. The real solution to these challenges lies not with a single state taking action on its own, but rather with global action. That’s why we need a comprehensive, national energy solution that funds energy R&D and takes advantage of every source of domestic energy we have – including nuclear, wind and solar – in an environmentally responsible way. That said, AB 32 is undoubtedly a job killer, and it should be suspended.”
Of course, a cap-and-trade system such as that in AB 32, or a carbon tax would both fund energy R&D. And AB 32 is already fueling the development of solar and wind energy here in California, creating thousands of jobs.
But Fiorina believes those jobs should be destroyed for the same reason she destroyed tens of thousands of jobs at HP – because those jobs get in the way of her or her wealthy cronies making more money.
As to AB 32’s impact on jobs, other Silicon Valley leaders – successful Silicon Valley leaders, I might add, as opposed to the failed CEO that is Carly Fiorina – have pointed out how AB 32 creates jobs:
[Venture capitalist Vinod] Khosla stated his position clearly on the oil-backed ballot measure: “Prop 23 will kill the market and the single largest source of job creation in California in the last two years.” Innovation started happening in California, and the next ten Googles of greentech will be created there, because the market is there, he said. If California’s market is destroyed, countries like China and other states will have a competitive edge and those next ten Googles will be built in those markets, said Khosla.
Google’s [Bill] Weihl agreed and said that AB32 has helped create companies and jobs and has been one of the brightest spots in the economy in the state. While many studies and researchers back this position, other conflicting studies have also found that AB32 could reduce the number of jobs (which is the fear that Prop 23 is tapping into). Think about AB32 as a 401K, said Khosla, you put aside a little bit month by month, but over time you save a whole lot. “It’s an investment in our future.”
Fiorina doesn’t believe in investing in our future, however. She believes instead in pillaging the future to enrich a small elite here in the present. No wonder she supports Prop 23 – it’s all part of her larger crusade to destroy the California economy and create mass unemployment in order to enrich herself and her friends.