Election Day Giving California Voters Choice Over Global Warming Law Through Ballot Prop. 23

Graphic courtesy of climateactionmoreland.org.

Californians will have a very important decision to make this Election Day beyond who will represent them over the next term. On the ballot, voters will find something called the “California Jobs Initiative,” also commonly known as Proposition 23.

The ballot will inform voters that if they vote ‘yes’ and the proposition passes, that it will suspend the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (also known as AB 32), which is scheduled to become operative on Jan. 1, 2012.       

The goal of the proposition is to suspend law - which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions - until California’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or below for four consecutive quarters (a 12-month span).

If the global warming law goes into effect, it will require California’s State Air Resource Board to design and implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels in the next eight years (by 2020).

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Environmental Groups Set New York State Agenda for Upcoming Earth Day Lobby Day

New York State Wetlands. Photo courtesy of geocities.comALBANY- Environmental advocacy groups from around the state have just finalized the agenda for this year’s annual Earth Day lobbying pilgrimage to Albany on May 5.

“There are a couple of dozen environmental groups that will be taking part in the day. The Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group, just to name a few,” said Bill Mahoney, legislative operations coordinator for the Albany office of NYPIRG.

“All the groups came together to come up with the agenda of what issues we are working on,” he added. The major focus of the groups during the day will be the following four bills:

• Wetlands Protection (A.6363/S.848)
• Global Warming Pollution Control Act (A.7572)
• Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act (A.7571/S/2512)
• Environmental Access to Justice (A.3423/S.1635)

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