by Jakada Imani
Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
All of the polling to date tells us that voters of color will be the deciding factor for Proposition 23, the Texas Oil company attack on California’s clean air law. Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Prop, a deep and broad coalition has come together to make sure voters of color don’t fall for polluter-promoted lies. Communities United is made up of the state’s most well respected social/environmental justice and community-based organizations. Our core partners will focus in their own backyards. It also happens to be in the very communities that are most negatively impacted by pollution and have the most to gain by protecting the state’s clean air laws. Already, more than 80 Latino, African American and Asian/Pacific Islander Groups have come together to form this historic grassroots campaign.
Proposition 23 will hurt low-income communities and people of color first and worst. This Dirty Energy Proposition will guarantee more air pollution and fewer jobs, especially in communities already burdened by too much pollution and poverty.
Prop 23 is funded almost exclusively by two Texas oil companies. Valero and Tesoro are among the nation’s worst toxic polluters in the state. Their refineries are listed among the top ten polluters in California, as detailed in a recently released report detailing the environmental violations and fines assessed against Valero and Tesoro refineries in the city of Wilmington, CA. I am always appalled to see the way that special interests try to buy the ballot box. Saying “No” to Proposition 23 tells Big Oil that California air is not for sale.
Contrary to the lies being peddled by the oil companies, Prop. 23 would kill jobs, not save them. Times are hard. Unemployment is up. And joblessness impacts folks of color at higher rates. But I also know that green jobs are the fasting growing part of the California economy. And that only a green economic recovery will truly build a California with more jobs and less pollution for all of us.
A poll last month by the Public Policy Institute of California found that voters of color were more likely than whites voters to be concerned about climate change and more likely to see air pollution as a problem. This is not surprising to me as a West Oakland resident, where every day I see first hand the impacts of pollution on brown and black folks. Low-income communities are facing epidemics of asthma and lung disease due to air pollution and Prop. 23 will ensure it stays that way.
Communities United is mounting an aggressive, statewide grassroots campaign to educate voters of color about the Dirty Energy Prop. In the coming weeks, we will be ramping up the campaign, with statewide days of action, the naming of the campaign’s co-chairs and The Clean Energy Hip-Hop Tour, a statewide music tour bringing together the arts, activism and education on college campuses to mobilize the young vote. We’ve been taking our message to media outlets that reach Asian/Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, and Latinos, to expose the lies behind Prop. 23.
Our recent experience with Prop 16, shows us that Californians know how to follow the money. Once we do, we will see that the supporters of Prop 23 are putting their profits before the health of our children or our economy.
If you are interested in doing something about this devastating proposition, please join us at http://communitiesagainstprop2…
The purpose of Prop 23 is to end AB32. AB32 is all about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It uses the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set up a regulatory system that will achieve the goals of reducing GHG to 1990 levels by 2020. Its an ambitious goal.
GHG is primarily CO2 but also includes methane and some other gases. These emissions are not pollution in the sense that our children are at greater risk for lung disease or asthma but rather it is the much larger issue of global warming at stake.
There is no question that AB32 will increase regulatory burdens on some industries. Certainly power generators who will pass those burdens on to customers, but also a vast array of other industries–transportation, farming, manufacturing, etc.
Many businesses will be hurt by AB32. That is just fact. Some people might lose their jobs.
However, other jobs will be created. The money that some businesses will spend will go to new companies that develop clean energy or reduce landfill gases or make trucks more efficient. There will be disruption, and the road may be bumpy, but obviously we must go down that road.
With AB32 we are going to be leaders in the green energy revolution. California will attract the best scientists, the best engineers and the best companies who want to take advantage of these new opportunities. It is something of a leap of faith–because so many other variable enter into the decisions of companies to invest–but eventually we will thank our lucky stars for AB32 (I hope).
I question the actual impact on global warming. Taking our GHG emissions to the 1990 levels by 2020 seems like a huge task and will require substantive disruption as we shift to a greener economy. But the corresponding benefits to the global efforts to reduce GHG seems tiny by comparison.
I suppose that we are going to pay a price to be leaders of a brave new world. And I trust we are right about this. We are kind of betting the farm on CARB and their approach to reducing GHG. I sure hope they get it right.