Prop. 23 Campaigns Cost $46 Million
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- More than $46 million was spent for and against a failed November ballot measure that would have suspended California's landmark global warming law, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday.
Out-of-state oil companies and their supporters spent $10.5 million promoting Proposition 23, while opponents spent more than $36 million.
The initiative would have suspended the state's 2006 greenhouse gas reduction goals until California's unemployment rate, now 12.5 percent, drops to 5.5 percent and holds there for a year. That has occurred just three times in three decades.
Voters defeated Proposition 23 by a margin of 61.6 percent to 38.4 percent.
The initiative seeking to undo California's global warming law was one of nine propositions on the November ballot, which also included a failed initiative seeking to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Supporters and opponents for all propositions faced a Monday deadline to file their final fundraising and spending reports.
Opponents of the global warming initiative were able to entice support from big business, venture capitalists, environmental groups and Hollywood notables such as movie director James Cameron by turning the petroleum industry into a villain, said Bill Day, spokesman for Valero Corp. The Texas-based company contributed more than $5 million to the campaign.
"I think that probably had a detrimental effect" on contributions, he said.
The oil companies and their supporters argued that the state law will drive businesses out of state and should be delayed until the economy improves.
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for the groups fighting against Proposing 23, said the petroleum companies were overwhelmed by state and national groups that see green energy and jobs as the next wave in the California economy.
"California's business community rallied to save the fastest-growing business sector in the state," Maviglio said. "It also became a flashpoint nationally for the future of clean energy."
Schwarzenegger championed the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act as a hallmark of his administration. It made California the first state to approve greenhouse gas regulations, limiting industrial emissions beginning in 2012 and adding fossil fuel energy reductions in 2020.
In addition to rejecting the marijuana legalization, voters in November refused to enact a vehicle fee to fund state parks and repeal business tax breaks. They lowered the margin needed to approve state budgets in the Legislature from a two-thirds vote to a simple majority and gave an independent panel the authority to draw congressional districts.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
