Big Oil Supports Prop 26

The manipulation of public policy by corporation generated propositions on our ballots and their deceitful advertising continues.  Last election it was PG&E’s Prop 16. Now we have Prop 23 courtesy of Texas oil and Prop 26 from the oil, tobacco and alcohol industries.

Chevron, Philip Morris, Anheuser- Busch and other oil/gas, food/beverage industries, in order to evade the costs of their toxic wastes and the medical harm and social disruption of their products, devised Prop 26. They paid for signatures to get it on the ballot, then contributed $14.6 million to get it passed with deceitful ads claiming Prop 26 will “stop politicians from raising taxes without a public vote.”

Basically, Prop 26 would reclassify regulatory fees as taxes. Regulatory fees, paid by polluting industries, provide funds to mitigate the harm done by that industry. Approval of regulatory fees requires a simple majority of the Legislature or the governing body.  Taxes, in contrast, require a 2/3 majority by the Legislature or voters for passage.  Because a super majority is a high bar, industries are likely to reap the profits of pollution while the costs of repairing and limiting the environmental, medical and social damage of pollution will default to the public. Prop 26, therefore, is aptly dubbed the Polluters Protection Act.

Prop 26 will have a devastating effect on California’s landmark global warming law (AB32), because this law depends on regulatory fees to control green house gases. Without regulatory fees, AB 32 would be severely compromised. Thus, Prop 26 is an insidious version of Prop 23. 

Furthermore, “prop 26 would eviscerate the funding of all air and water pollution programs, even oil spill cleanup.” “…it is a Christmas present to the oil industry, the tobacco industry and every other polluting industry. The cost of regulation will shift from the industry to taxpayers.” (Warner Chabot, CEO California League of Conservation Voters.)

Clearly, to protect our global warming law and to mitigate all other forms of industrial pollution, we must vote NO on 26 and 23. To protect our democracy, we must oppose the hijacking of our elections for corporate gain.