This November, Texas oil companies hope to dupe California voters into repealing their own clean energy bill; AB32. The oil companies’ ballot measure had $966,000 in funding up through the end of March. Now they have doubled that, bringing the total to $1.9 million – supposedly to save California jobs.
Among the most recent additions, one mysterious conservative front group from Missouri – with only $30,000 in funding – somehow mustered $498,000 to save California from itself. But an in-state oil company, LA-based Occidental Petroleum openly added its own $300,000 on Friday.
As of the end of March, 89% of the funding has come from the oil industry, with nearly three quarters of that just from Texas oil companies. The petition gathering is being handled through The Tea Party, another (perhaps unwitting) front group for the fossil energy industry, as a subsidiary of Freedomworks, the Dick Army (mostly energy) lobbying group.
It is sure to increase voter turnout this November.