NEW ENERGY VS. DIRTY ENERGY’S PROP 23

Cleantech industry coming out against Prop. 23
Dana Hull, August 10, 2010 (San Jose Mercury News)

"If voters roll back California's landmark climate change bill this November, the state's burgeoning cleantech economy and the jobs it has created will face serious jeopardy…[according to cleantech leaders gathered] at Google's Mountain View campus to talk about the state's leadership in clean energy and to rally opposition to Proposition 23.

"Californians on Nov. 2 will vote on the measure, which is largely funded by two Texas oil companies and would essentially kill AB32, the climate change bill that laid out ambitious plans to reduce the state's carbon emissions."

click to enlarge

"Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Google 'Green Energy Czar' Bill Weihl, California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols and PG&E Senior Vice President Tom Bottorff held a wide-ranging panel discussion about California's leadership in clean tech and the importance of regulatory certainty."

[Vinod Khosla, New Energy entrepreneur:] "AB32 created markets…Prop. 23 will kill the market and the single largest source of job growth in California in the last two years."

click to enlarge

"…[W]ith hopes for national energy legislation effectively dead in Congress, cleantech business leaders in Silicon Valley are increasingly turning their attention to the battle looming over Proposition 23.

"Oil companies Valero and Tesoro have contributed the bulk of the $4 million raised to date to support the initiative, which would suspend AB 32 until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters…But opponents of Prop. 23 are raising money as well. Wendy Schmidt, wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and president of the Schmidt Foundation, donated $500,000 to the No on 23 campaign in June,…Venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, which has vast cleantech investments, [also] donated $500,000…"