In his Fox and Hounds opinion piece on August 27, Jeremy Leffler COO of BayBio, an industry consortium, touts the growth in biotechnology and bemoans the effects of Proposition 23 could have on that industry. He’s got many facts wrong and misses the bigger picture.
Mr. Leffler states that AB32 was adopted in "bi-partisan fashion." In 2006, on a party-line vote, legislative Democrats passed AB32 over the objections of Republicans. Authored by then-Assembly Speaker Fabien Núñez, ostensibly to combat the effects of global warming, AB32 forces businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. At the time, California’s unemployment rate was just under 5 percent.
"More than 6,000 new jobs were created in our [biotechnology] sector in just in the past 12 months, many of them in the development of alternative bio-fuels that are the direct result of California’s leadership." Also partly as a direct result of that ‘leadership’ California LOST 9,400 jobs in July alone and remains three percentage points higher in unemployment compared to the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
California now has an unemployment rate of 12.3 percent, likely even higher when counting the disillusioned. In many areas like the Central Valley, official rates exceed 20 percent. Leadership in one industry, like biotechnology is a hopeful aspect, but the harm caused other important industries cannot be overlooked for the benefit of the politically favored few. Biotechnology would also benefit more by developing products and services that markets actually want, rather than are forced on them through ill-conceived government mandates.
Perhaps Mr. Leffler, and other should look at the history of corn-derived ethanol to see the risks of relying on mandates and heavy subsidies.
Mr. Leffler also misses the boat on air pollution. He claims that passage of Proposition 23 would somehow thwart California’s air pollution control laws and lead to higher incidences of asthma and lung disease. Those diseases are caused by ozone and particulates, not CO2. Let me be clear on this: Proposition 23 does not touch any of California’s clean air laws. California already has the nation’s most stringent air pollution controls, a fact that Proposition 23 will not change.
What Proposition 23 will do is suspend the global warming ‘solutions’ law until we can afford it. That’s why a broad coalition of businesses and worker organizations, and air quality and public health officials, support Proposition 23.