Prop 23: Ridiculous
Green industries offer hope in this grave economic time. These are some of the few industries actually creating jobs right now. During this difficult economic time we need to do everything we can to create jobs. But Prop 23 backers want to hamstring these vibrant industries. Ridiculous.
I run Rising Sun Energy Center, a green workforce development organization in California. My experience tells me one thing about the rhetoric coming out of the pro-Proposition 23 camp: it's totally ridiculous.
Green industries offer hope in this grave economic time. These are some of the few industries actually creating jobs right now. During this difficult economic time we need to do everything we can to create jobs. But Prop 23 backers want to hamstring these vibrant industries. Ridiculous.
California has long been a national leader in clean energy. This continued with the passage of AB32, which creates a plan to sustain California's green economic growth and increase long-term competitiveness. It's exactly the plan we need right now, but Prop 23 would knock it completely off track. Ridiculous.
As a Californian, of course I care about jobs, but I also care about our environment and its ability to sustain the health of our communities. Every day, I see firsthand how the low-income people Rising Sun serves suffer most at the hands of California's heaviest polluters. Poor indoor and outdoor air quality harms everyday Californians' health and prevents them from being able to work to support their families. We must do all we can to protect neighborhoods from the negative impacts of pollution. Instead, Prop 23 would give polluters more freedom to poison our state. Ridiculous.
If we are serious about addressing climate change and moving towards a clean-energy economy, we need to defend AB32 and defeat Proposition 23. California's environment, economy, and jobs depend on it.
Jodi Pincus is the Executive Director of Rising Sun Energy Center and a member of Green For All's Communities of Practice.
