Oil billionaires give $1 M to suspend CA global warming law
Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch, who are also prominent backers of the Tea Party movement, have spent $1 million on the effort to suspend California’s global warming law. “Chump change” for billionaires.
A subsidiary of Koch Industries gave $1 M earlier this week o the campaign for Proposition 23, which would suspend the 2006 law that requires significant reductions in California’s greenhouse gas emissions. Proposition 23 would suspend the law until the California unemployment rate falls below 5.5% for four consecutive quarters.
The Koch Industries subsidiary, Flint Hill Resources, told the Los Angeles Times that they may consider even more support for Proposition 23. Flint Hill Resources joins two Texas-based companies, Valero Energy and Tesoro as contributors to the campaign for Proposition 23. An LATimes opinion piece is here.
The initiative is opposed by environmental groups, Democratic lawmakers, and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
OK, let’s just think about this for 30 seconds – it should not take much longer because this issue is pretty “transparent.” Business, which created the Great Recession through “free market” 
financial policies, is now PROLONGING the recession in the U.S. by using its capital in other ways than hiring back American workers. A likely reason is political, to throw blame upon the incumbent Democrats and influence the 2010 elections. (Republicans in Congress are currently blocking President Obama’s aid package for small business.) Another reason is financial, to keep salaries depressed.
Business can set the unemployment rate at anything it wants, since it creates employment. Now you understand why Prop 23 is based on unemployment levels.
Now, do you think that California’s unemployment rate will EVER drop below 5.5% for four consecutive quarters IF Proposition 23 passes? Well, do you?
Of course, some Big Oil executives don’t believe in global warming (probably because the discovery did not come out of their own heads). Since the highest point in Houston is at 125 feet of elevation, these execs will not likely have to kayak (or ride their yachts) to work anytime soon.
The amazing thing to me is that these executives ALSO don’t care what kind of world they leave to their own children.
-Bill at
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