California voters tell Proposition 23 to go back to Texas

The voters of California have, as expected, handed defeat to Proposition 23, the oil-company-backed initiative that would have rolled back Assembly Bill 32, a 2006 law that, among other things, forces the state to turn to cleaner methods of generating energy in order to cut carbon emission levels to 1990 levels by 2020. The Los Angeles Times reports that the bills opponents raised three times as much as supporters ($30 million to $10 million), even though a lot of money came from out-of-state oil companies, particularly from Texas in support of Prop 23. Before the vote but after the World Series ended, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement that read:

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers tonight, just like California voters are going to defeat the attempts of dirty Texas oil companies to undo our clean energy laws at the polls tomorrow.

Must be pretty sweet when your team and the environment win in the same week.

[Source: LA Times, Green Car Reports | Image: hjl – C.C. License 2.0]