Poizner and Whitman on the wrong side of reality on climate law
It is no surprise when candidates for public office use a strawman argument to appeal to the desires or fears of the electorate and political donors. So, It is no great surprise that gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner in their recent debate offered up a strawman argument as a cure all for the economic despair that in which most Californians are mired. It is also an argument that appeals to the more backward corporations that chafe at every sort of rule governing their behavior.
Both Poizner and Whitman argue that the regulations just now being formulated under California's landmark green house gas emissions reduction law, AB 32, will keep Californians from going back to work. Both argue that businesses don't like rules. Poizner even went so far as to blame rules that have yet to be made for California's higher than the nation average unemployment rate. Nice try guys. The San Jose Mercury News was right to call their position "alarmingly ill-informed".
Both candidates ignore the fact that it was a lack of rules, or rules that went unenforced, governing the big banks and Wall Street that was directly responsible for the near collapse of the American economy and the painfully high unemployment rate we are now experiencing. Do they think we don't remember that Wall Street and the banks succeeded in rolling back the Depression era rules designed to prevent another economic collapse? Do they think we can't see the results with our own eyes?
Certainly oil companies and other polluters don't want any new rules affecting their businesses. They never have. Car and truck manufacturers don't want to clean up their vehicles, the never have. The fact is that AB 32 is a measure designed to reduce California's impact on the world's climate. It will also decrease our dependence on foreign oil and dirty domestic coal. It will create new industries and new jobs right here in California and it will make the air and water cleaner and healthier for all Californians. In the process, AB 32 will reduce loss of life and the health care costs caused by pollution related to using fossil fuels. Makes me wonder what reality Poizner and Whitman live in.
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