CA JOBS INITIATIVE PETITIONS DELIVERED TO  L.A. COUNTY REGISTRAR OF VOTERS

Voters to Decide Between Saving CA Economy or Sacrificing a Million Jobs and Billions of Dollars for Ineffective Global Warming Law

Los Angeles -- The California Jobs Initiative today delivered signatures to the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters as part of the statewide submission of petitions that will qualify the measure to go before voters in November. If approved, the initiative would delay climate regulations until California's unemployment rate — now at 12.6 percent — drops to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year. That's only happened three times in the past three decades, according to California Employment Development Department statistics.

“The California Jobs Initiative will protect jobs and save businesses and consumers billions in higher energy costs and other expenses, while preserving our state’s tough air and water quality laws, said Valerie Liese, chairwoman of the California Trucking Association. “The California Jobs Initiative can make the difference between surviving this recession or going under for many of our members.”

AB 32 is expected to cost over a million jobs, increase electricity costs for some ratepayers by 30
– 60%, drive up diesel and gasoline costs by $3.7 billion; and add $50,000 to the cost of a new home. It would also impose a cap and trade auction tax as high as $143 billion or more, posing enormous costs to Los Angeles institutions such as UCLA, which would be classified as a greenhouse gas polluter under AB 32. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has warned that AB 32 could cost Department of Water & Power ratepayers an additional $750,000 a year.

“It’s time to give voters a choice: do we want to save jobs and rebuild California’s economy, or do we want to kill another million jobs and spend billions on programs that will do nothing to reduce global warming?” said Bill La Marr, executive director of the California Small Business Alliance. “The California Jobs Initiative will bring desperately needed common sense and fiscal responsibility to the AB 32 implementation process.”

The California Jobs Initiative would leave AB 32 intact, but would temporarily adjust the timetable for implementation of related regulations until the state’s unemployment rate declines to 5.5% for four consecutive quarters. The measure would in no way impact California’s many environmental regulations protecting air quality, water quality and public health, which are already the strictest in the nation and which would remain in full force and effect.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), in evaluating AB 32’s potential for helping solve global warming, has said: “California acting alone cannot reduce emissions sufficiently to change the course of climate change worldwide.”

Source: Associated Press
May 3, 2010

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