At the ballot box this November California voters showed that they are determined to clean up their state's deplorable air quality. They quashed Proposition 23, which would have temporarily suspended key emissions-reduction tenets in the Golden State's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. How temporarily? Until pigs fly, or rather until the state unemployment level dropped to 5.5%--from the 12.4% it's at now.
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The biggest backers of Prop 23 were Texas-based oil companies like Tesoro ( TSO - news - people ) and Valero Energy ( VLO - news - people ) and Koch Industries (owned by the Tea Party-backing billionaire Koch brothers), all of which have operations in California. Valero, for its part, put up $5 million for a media campaign attempting to convince California that the Global Warming Solutions Act is a job-killer. So too did truck drivers who spew particulates from their diesel engines while hauling loads to and from the Port of Long Beach.
If only those workers knew that their jobs were killing them. The American Lung Association says that truck drivers, dock workers and railroad workers who inhale diesel exhaust are much more likely to die from lung cancer and heart disease than the general population.
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They didn't get any sympathy from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposed Prop. 23--and who signed the original 2006 global warming legislation. Last week Schwarzenegger, wearing a pair of tough-looking cowboy boots, celebrated the vote and lambasted the oil companies: "We made it clear if those interests push us around," he said, "we'll push back."
America's Dirtiest Cities Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com
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The biggest backers of Prop 23 were Texas-based oil companies like Tesoro ( TSO - news - people ) and Valero Energy ( VLO - news - people ) and Koch Industries (owned by the Tea Party-backing billionaire Koch brothers), all of which have operations in California. Valero, for its part, put up $5 million for a media campaign attempting to convince California that the Global Warming Solutions Act is a job-killer. So too did truck drivers who spew particulates from their diesel engines while hauling loads to and from the Port of Long Beach.
If only those workers knew that their jobs were killing them. The American Lung Association says that truck drivers, dock workers and railroad workers who inhale diesel exhaust are much more likely to die from lung cancer and heart disease than the general population.
~
They didn't get any sympathy from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposed Prop. 23--and who signed the original 2006 global warming legislation. Last week Schwarzenegger, wearing a pair of tough-looking cowboy boots, celebrated the vote and lambasted the oil companies: "We made it clear if those interests push us around," he said, "we'll push back."
America's Dirtiest Cities Page 2 of 2 - Forbes.com