FIGHT ON IN CALIF OVER CLIMATE LAW

Gloves off in California over greenhouse gas law; California environmentalists opened fire on Wednesday on a measure approved for the state's November ballot that would roll back a landmark law regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
Jim Christie and Sandra Maler, June 23, 2010 (Reuters)

"Linking the measure to the historic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups lambasted the measure, noting in a statement that Texas-based oil companies Valero and Tesoro have put money behind it.

"…[C]ertified by California's top elections official for the ballot…[the measure] would suspend [California’s anti-climate change] law until the unemployment rate in the most populous U.S. state, currently more than 12 percent, drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters.

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"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed [AB32] in 2006 and it has been a sore subject with many traditional businesses ever since while green technology companies, many investors, and environmentalists have celebrated it as a milestone in regulating pollution tied to climate change…[It] requires greenhouse gas emissions in California to be rolled back to 1990 levels by 2020, which would require substantial investment in equipment at refineries, power plants and factories, heavy use of alternative energy and much more."

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"Opponents and supporters have been churning out reports that predict the law will either be bane or boon to California's economy, arguments reflected in the positions the two major party candidates running to succeed Schwarzenegger have taken…

"Fellow Republican and former eBay Inc CEO Meg Whitman says the law would put California's businesses at a disadvantage to rivals in other states…Like other prominent Democrats in California, Jerry Brown, the state's attorney general and former two-term governor, supports AB32…"