Climate fight to factor in Calif. attorney general race

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Democratic candidate for attorney general in California yesterday challenged her opponents to defend the state's climate law in the face of a ballot initiative that seeks to repeal greenhouse gas emissions limits until the economy rebounds.

In doing so, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris sought to position herself as the first candidate for attorney general to explicitly make A.B. 32 a prominent campaign theme. She pledged to fight for the law during this year's race and, if necessary, in the courtroom if elected to be California's lead attorney.

"The next attorney general will play and must play a key role in defending A.B. 32," Harris told reporters during a press call set up by the California League of Conservation Voters. "And to tell those Texas interests ... to keep their focus on Texas and stay out of California."

Harris' remarks referenced an effort to place before voters this November a ballot measure that would repeal A.B. 32's carbon limits until state unemployment drops from above 12 percent to 5.5 percent. The primary backers of the campaign, which is still in the signature-gathering stage, are two refining companies based in San Antonio, Texas (ClimateWire, March 19).

Harris is running in a wide-open Democratic field in which no clear leader has emerged before the June primary. The California LCV decided last month to endorse Harris, while the other major environmental group that endorses candidates in the state, Sierra Club California, has backed state Rep. Pedro Nava (Greenwire, March 9).

Sierra Club's picks for attorney general have won the last three races for the job. Nava has also been endorsed by former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), and actor-environmentalists Ed Begley Jr. and Pierce Brosnan.

Nava responds
Nava portrayed Harris as a relative neophyte on climate policy and said his credentials, including a stint at the California Coastal Commission, should make him the top candidate for attorney general on the environment. In the same breath, Nava said Harris is right to jump on the issue.

"Let's give credit where credit is due," Nava said in an interview. "If she was the first one to take a position on this, then good for her. There are plenty of other candidates what would agree with her and that we have to do everything we can to protect and enforce the law."

Nava then noted that he was an original co-author of A.B. 32 in the state Assembly and said he was a key figure in defeating Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) attempt to open the Santa Barbara coast to offshore drilling last year.

"I think the voters are going to take a look at each candidate's long-term history in environmental protection," he said. "There isn't anybody running that has the longtime success in protecting the environment."

As for the repeal effort itself, the assemblyman said the job losses that the ballot measure campaign fears would emerge from A.B. 32 are less fact than fiction. He said he expects the effort to be "exposed for the hypocrisy that it is."

"A.B. 32 hasn't even been implemented yet, and the right wing wants to blame it for every job loss in California," he said. "Once voters get the correct information, they're going to reject this initiative."

Climate law opponents expect to make next deadline
Anita Mangels, a spokeswoman for the ballot initiative to suspend A.B. 32, said the effort has been pounding the pavement for supporters and expects to make the May 1 deadline for filing 433,000 signatures with the secretary of state, who would certify the results by June.

Regarding the attorney general race, Mangels said Harris and others have failed to weigh the connection between jobs and the emissions cuts. She said the ballot measure "will give voters a choice" on whether now is the time to risk further job losses.

"She appears to be misinformed about what A.B. 32 will and will not do," said Mangels, citing a report by a California legislative auditor that found the climate law is unlikely to produce jobs in the short term (Greenwire, March 10).

Mangels also took issue with a "change in messaging" among those who support the climate law. A campaign to defeat the ballot measure has attempted to equate carbon emissions with air quality, she said, calling it a false connection.

"A.B. 32 is about greenhouse gas emissions," Mangels said. "It's not about smog-forming pollutants."

She added: "Without A.B. 32, California will still have the strictest air and water quality protections in the entire country."

Among Republicans, state Sen. Tom Harman, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and John Eastman, a former dean of the Chapman University School of Law and a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have expressed interest in the attorney general position. None has taken an official position on A.B. 32 repeal.

Source: ClimateWire
March 31, 2010

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