California's Clean Air Initiative Survives a Death Threat — But Why?

I’m happy to announce that California voters soundly rejected Proposition 23 – a proposal that would have essentially killed the state’s clean air initiative. But exactly why? I’m not sure anyone will ever know.

Prop 23 was backed almost entirely by two out-of-state (Texas) oil companies. Voters don’t like being manipulated (in the few cases where they can see it coming so clearly).

The venture capitalists and hedge fund managers that profit from California’s tech sector backed a powerful “No on 23” campaign, outspending even the Texas oil billionaires.

Californians are not unlike other Americans in their concern for unemployment, and those backing the campaign tried to convince voters that our clean air initiative would kill two jobs for every green job it would create. I don’t think people bought that. From the bit of research I’ve done into the effect of renewables in job creation, I’ve seen that this is a fantastically complex calculus – quite unamenable to a pat formula; I think this facile reasoning failed the electorate’s BS test.

Lastly, we have the issue of doing the right thing. Prop 23 supporters said that California’s contribution to the world’s air pollution is a negligible 3% — and that therefore the clean air initiative was meaningless. I think voters saw that for the pure baloney it is. Responsible people do things all day long: we go to the polls, we refrain from littering, we call 911 to report road hazards, and perform dozens of other actions without having to believe that our individual behavior is changing the world. We do right things simply because they’re right.

In the case of California, many of us perceive an additional responsibility, in that many of the ideas that start here and pan out positively are picked up and duplicated in other states, and ultimately around the world.

I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what killed Prop 23.  Having said that, it certainly is good to have it six feet deep.