It’s earnings time in the corporate world and guess what? Texas-based oil refiner Valero Energy yesterday reported a 27 percent increase in retail profit for the first quarter of 2010 and gave its CEO a 64 percent raise to $10.9 million a year. Valero’s announcement has special resonance for California fans of clean air, California jobs, and American energy independence. There’s a big clean energy showdown taking place here in California, and Valero is right in the dirty middle of it.
Valero—one of the worst polluters in the country-is the largest funder to date in a political campaign to reverse decades of California environmental leadership and keep our air dirty. It's paying to gather signatures for a November ballot proposition that would “suspend” California’s clean energy and climate policy (AB 32) until the state’s unemployment drops to levels seen just three times in 30 years – a good definition of “when the cows come home.”
Rather than directing its profits into cleaning up the pollution from its refineries, Valero is pumping them into this Dirty Energy Proposition.
Big Oil’s morally repugnant initiative comes at a crucial moment. Thanks to AB 32 and similar clean energy policy, California leads the nation in policies that link protecting our environment to growing our economy. Far from threatening jobs, as the oil companies charge, AB 32 promises to create a flood of new jobs in America’s largest and growing clean energy economy. A clean energy future scares the daylight out of polluters, which is whey they’re fighting it tooth and nail.
“Suspending” AB 32 until the cows come home would kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and chill billions of dollars of new green investment in California. According to the non-partisan, independent state Legislative Analyst’s Office, the suspension of AB 32 could: “delay…longer-run savings, dampen…investments in…green jobs by private firms, [and] result in less economic activity than would otherwise be the case.”
Big Texas oil companies are blowing cigar smoke in our faces – trying to buy votes in November to reverse the tide of history so they can keep polluting our air. If Big Oil can buy a win in California, it can bulldoze progress wherever it wants.
We can’t underestimate these special interests and the millions of dollars of profits they are funneling into California to roll back progress. Here in the Golden State, Job One is to prove not only that California is the national leader in growing its economy by protecting its environment, but also that Californians will stand up for their economic future in the voting booth. To do that, we must get the truth out to Californians. Please visit the campaign’s website, get the tools you need and get involved.