Earth Equity News

The Sneaky Threat that Could Cripple California's Climate Law. By Nicole Allan, The Atlantic, 11/5/10. “California voters batted down an oil-industry-backed evisceration of their state's climate program on Tuesday, giving environmental groups one of their biggest victories this year. But in the midst of all the celebration of the defeat of Proposition 23, few are talking about the fact that Californians also passed a proposition that could quietly undo the very law they voted to protect. Proposition 26 has been called Prop. 23's ‘sneaky, environmentally unfriendly stepsister.’ It is complicated and vague, much more difficult to explain than Prop. 23's direct assault on California's cap-and-trade law. Yet the sneaky stepsister has the potential to strip this law of its funding mechanisms, rendering it relatively useless.

“Prop. 26 will reclassify ‘fees’ the state assesses on various industries as ‘taxes,’ requiring the state legislature to pass them by a two-thirds majority. As proved every year when the legislature attempts to pass a budget, a two-thirds majority is next to impossible to achieve. The industries that will be most affected by this reclassification are those on which the state imposes fees to compensate for negative societal costs -- the beverage industry, for one. Beverage distributors in California have to pay fees to cover recycling costs and alcohol enforcement programs. Not surprisingly, the industry was one of the biggest contributors to the Yes on Prop. 26 campaign. Oil companies -- particularly Chevron -- were the other major force behind it.”