Suspend AB 32 (2010)

California Assemblyman Dan Logue is "the brains behind" an effort to put a Suspend AB 32 initiative on the state's November 2010 ballot. The initiative (Proposition 23: the California Jobs Initiative) would suspend California's Global Warming Solutions Act, A.B. 32, until the state's unemployment rate dips to 5.5 percent or lower for four consecutive calendar quarters - a condition that has occurred only three times in the last 30 years, according to initiative opponents. ,

Title
Termed by supporters the California Jobs Initiative, California state Attorney General Jerry Brown has given it the official title Suspends Air Pollution Control Laws Requiring Major Polluters to Report and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions That Cause Global Warming Until Unemployment Drops Below Specified Level for Full Year.

Economic impact
The economic study that the initiative's backers originally cited to justify the initiative has been widely attacked, for a number of reasons, one being including the costs but omitting the benefits; its main author has declined to defend the study against these criticisms. . This study, by Cal State University Sacramento Business School dean Sanjay Varshney and professor Dennis Tootelian, was funded by the California Small Business Roundtable advocacy coalition.

A December 2009 report by the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), looking at the Varshney study and three other studies, reported that "Three of four prominent analyses show the costs of climate policy are far outweighed by projected economic growth". These three other studies were conducted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB); University of California researchers; and Charles River Associates/Electric Power Research Institute.

A [March 2010] report by California's Legislative Analyst's Office predicted that AB 32 will result in short-term job losses, even though, the Huffington Post reported, "the Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out that the report admits that predicting job losses or gains from AB 32 is extremely difficult, provides no independent research to back its claim of overall job losses, and fails to mention the numerous studies that have found that AB 32 would be a net job creator with little or no impact on small businesses."

Supporters
The California Secretary of State's website lists Thomas W. Hiltachk as the initiative's proponent.

The SuspendAB32.org website lists proponents of the effort as U.S. Congressman Tom McClintock and California Assemblyman Dan Logue.

Ted Costa, CEO of People's Advocate, had also been listed as a proponent until he turned against the effort in March 2010 due to its "country club" organization and unreported oil industry funding.

Committee
The committee supporting this effort is the California Jobs Initiative Committee; its officers are, :
 * Sponsor: Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
 * Treasurer: Colleen C. McAndrews of Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP
 * "Other Principal Officer" Scott Folwarkow, Valero's director of government affairs in California

Financial support
Records from California's secretary of state show more than $3 million has been spent to qualify the initiative, with eighty percent of that money from special interests outside of California, and 78 percent oil money.

A March 18 2010 Secretary of State filing reported the following "stop AB 32" donors:
 * Valero Services Inc., $500,000; San Antonio TX
 * Tesoro Companies, $100,000; Long Beach. (Company HQ is in San Antonio TX .)
 * World Oil Corp., $100,000; Houston TX
 * Tower Energy Group, $100,000; Torrance CA
 * No New Taxes, a Project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, $100,001; Los Angeles CA
 * Southern Counties Oil Co. DBA Total Energy Products, $50,000; Orange CA
 * JACO Oil Co., $10,000; Bakersfield CA
 * Lumber Association of California and Nevada PAC, $5000; Folsom CA
 * Roger W. Cohen, Retired Physicist, $1000; La Jolla. (The former Manager of Strategic Planning and Programs for ExxonMobil, he also reportedly lives (with same wife) in Durango CO. )

Other large donors include:
 * Adam Smith Foundation, $498,000; Jefferson City, MO. Missouri is home to two of the nation's largest coal companies, Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Co. ; principals with the foundation have refused to say where the money came from.


 * In September 2010, Flint Hills Resources, a Kansas petrochemical company that is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, donated $1 million to the campaign.

See ElectionTrack's page for a current list.

History
As of mid-February 2010, Dan Logue had asserted that $700,000 had been committed to the effort to gather signatures, but neither he nor Ted Costa would identify the backers.

Up to $2 million had been pledged by Texas-based refiners Valero and Tesoro, the Los Angeles Times reported March 3.

PR Firms
Queries about the initiative's financial backers were referred to PR firm Goddard Claussen, a Sacramento-and-DC firm which "created the Harry and Louise ads that helped kill health reform back in the early 1990s"; the Sacramento News and Review reported this firm had been hired to run the campaign.

Identified as spokeswoman for the signature-gathering effort is Anita Mangels of Bay Area "ballot measure and issue advocacy" firm Woodward & McDowell, which is running the anti-AB32 AB 32 Implementation Group. This firm has previously run campaigns to defeat measures that would have restricted smoking and permitted pay-at-the-pump auto insurance. .

Opponents
Opposing the initiative is Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs, "sponsored by environmental organizations and business. Major Funding by Green Tech Action Fund, Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund California Ballot Measures Committee", according to the group's website. On June 23, 2010, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope, and Bay Area environmental leaders held a press conference calling on Valero and Tesoro to stop “bankrolling a deceptive, special interest effort to repeal California's clean air and clean energy laws.”

Contributions
From ElectionTrack, May 11 2010, contributors are: See ElectionTrack's page on this committee for a current list.
 * Green Tech Action Fund,	San Francisco:		$500,000 on	2010-03-31
 * Environmental Defense Fund,	New York:		$75,000 on	2010-03-31
 * Natural Resources Defense Council,	New York:		$12,500 on	2010-03-30
 * Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, California Ballot Measures Committee (Nrdc),	Sacramento:		$50,000	 on 2010-03-25
 * Nicolas Berggruen $250,000 donation
 * Thomas Steyer (Hedge fund manager) donated $2.5 million
 * John Doerr (Venture capitalist) contributed $500,000
 * Anne Earhart (heiress to the Getty family fortune) has donated $250,000

States vow to sue CA if Suspend AB 32 fails
In September 2010, the attorneys general of at least four states are preparing to sue California if AB 32 survives the Prop 23 challenge. The attorneys general of Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, and North Dakota have been devising a legal strategy to challenge the California act on the grounds that it "interferes with the right to freely conduct interstate commerce" and thus violates the U.S. Constitution, according to attorney general of North Dakota Wayne Stenehjem.

Contact
"Stop AB32" website: http://www.jobs2010ca.com/ ( formerly http://SuspendAB32.org ) "No on 23, Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition" (Keep AB32) website: http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * AB 32
 * Goddard Claussen
 * AB32 Implementation Group
 * Woodward & McDowell
 * People's Advocate
 * Ted Costa
 * Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP
 * Thomas W. Hiltachk
 * Koch Industries
 * David H. Koch

External resources

 * SuspendAB32.org supporting the initiative
 * StopDirtyEnergyProp.com opposing the initiative. (Earlier: No on Valero site in opposition)
 * Why oil billionaire David Koch is secretly funding Astroturf to repeal CA clean energy laws Climate Progress, August 19, 2010
 * Don’t panic: Much of California’s climate-change strategy can survive Big Oil’s ballot attack—sort of Sacramento News & Review, July 22, 2010
 * Why oil billionaire David Koch is secretly funding Astroturf to repeal CA clean energy laws Climate Progress, August 19, 2010
 * Don’t panic: Much of California’s climate-change strategy can survive Big Oil’s ballot attack—sort of Sacramento News & Review, July 22, 2010

Campaign Finance

 * Stop AB 32 (California Jobs Initiative Committee) financial data from California Secretary of State, ElectionTrack
 * Keep AB 32 (Californians For Clean Energy And Jobs) financial data from California Secretary of State, ElectionTrack