Californians Vote Down Prop. 23, Saving the State’s Upcoming Global Warming Law

Despite scare tactics from oil and chemical companies, by an overwhelming margin on Election Day the people of California voted against Proposition 23, also called the “California Jobs Initiative,” which would have killed the state’s global warming law scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

Now secure, California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, more commonly known as AB 32, will require California’s State Air Resource Board to design and implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels in the next eight years (by 2020).

They don’t know what the 1990 levels are yet, so the law has given the board the job of evaluating “the best available scientific, technological, and economic information on greenhouse gas emissions to determine the 1990 levels.”

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Election Day Giving California Voters Choice Over Global Warming Law Through Ballot Prop. 23

Graphic courtesy of climateactionmoreland.org.

Californians will have a very important decision to make this Election Day beyond who will represent them over the next term. On the ballot, voters will find something called the “California Jobs Initiative,” also commonly known as Proposition 23.

The ballot will inform voters that if they vote ‘yes’ and the proposition passes, that it will suspend the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (also known as AB 32), which is scheduled to become operative on Jan. 1, 2012.       

The goal of the proposition is to suspend law - which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions - until California’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or below for four consecutive quarters (a 12-month span).

If the global warming law goes into effect, it will require California’s State Air Resource Board to design and implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels in the next eight years (by 2020).

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