California is a national pacesetter for progressive policy. When those policies relate to climate change, however, not even California seems capable of finding its stride.
Under immense pressure from the oil industry, state leaders on Wednesday agreed to gut a historic piece of climate change legislation, dropping a provision that would have required a 50% cut in petroleum use in cars and trucks by 2030.
The modified bill, which lawmakers are expected to pass on Thursday, still includes commitments to boost renewable energy production and bolster building efficiency, both by 50% over the next fifteen years.
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But the gasoline target was a test of the state’s power to battle greenhouse gases, and it’s failure clearly frustrated supporters, including Gov. Jerry Brown and his allies in the senate.
State Sen. Kevin de León, who wrote the original bill and got it through the senate earlier this year, blamed the loss on the fossil fuel industry’s “bottomless war chest.”
“I don’t think we’ve seen an amount of money spent like we have seen in the last four months—tens of millions of dollars spent to create this smoke screen,” he said at a Capitol press conference late Wednesday.
Kathryn Phillips, who runs the Sierra Club’s California chapter, went even further, saying that the oil industry was waging “war on humanity” by blocking efforts to reduce heat-emissions as much as scientists say is necessary to avert catastrophe.
“The oil companies are ruthless,” she said. “They are determined to tell every lie they can and to scare people to death just so they can keep as much market share as possible.”
The opposition was lead by the Western State Petroleum Association, a trade group that includes BP, Chevron, Shell Oil and Exxon Mobil as members. The group spent nearly $9 million on lobbying last year, according to public records, and in recent months, it filled radio and television airtime with ads alleging that California was headed for gas rationing, a ban on minivans and economic ruin.









