The Fight for Clean Air
The Inland Empire is home to some of the worst air pollution in the nation, and though we are seeing some slow improvement in air quality here, Riverside County remains part of one of the country’s top 25 most air polluted regions. Prop 23, which is on the statewide ballot next week, would put the brakes on clean energy development in California, and would be a huge setback in our progress toward cleaner air and a world-leading clean energy economy.
Texas oil companies – including Valero, Tesoro and Koch Industries – are the principal backers of Prop 23. Why? Our move to a clean energy economy is a direct threat to their industry, whose product is gasoline, whose byproduct is dirty air and damaged health and whose simple equation is the more gasoline they sell in California, the greater their profits.