Proposition 23 frames AB 32 as a job killer

September 22, 2010

From the Official Title and Summary of California Proposition 23:

• Suspends State law [AB 32] that requires greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, until California's unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters.

This wording strongly suggests that AB 32 is a job killer, so should be put off until better economic times allow us to afford the luxury of controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

But what if the opposite is true, and Proposition 23 is itself the job killer? Proposition 23 would discourage the growth of green industries and could put the state (and the U.S.) farther behind in the race to develop clean energy technologies.

I don't always agree with Thomas Friedman, but he makes a valid point in his September 18 column: that China is poised to take the lead in developing clean energy technologies. Friedman writes:

... China's Communists also turned [climate change] into a four-letter word — J-O-B-S.

Prop 23 could have the opposite effect of killing green jobs in California.