Prop 87 is a California ballot initiative that would tax oil drilling in the state, and use the money to reduce petroleum usage. Passage is by no means assured, as the opposition is incredibly well-funded.
Here, sometime Gristblogger Ana Unruh Cohen writes a rebuttal to Robert Rapier, one of the measure’s critics.
To her many fine points, I would also add one more.
One of Robert’s primary reasons for opposing the measure is the supposed mendacity of the initiative’s backers. It’s a silly metric for evaluating the merits of a program, but if applied, it should be applied to both parties equally. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, no? So, let’s get out our scales and see what we have.
On the one hand, the crimes of the Prop 87 proponents: an overly broad generalization here, a little bit of hyperbole there … nothing that will get you kicked out of heaven as far as I can tell.
And on the other side: Big Oil. I struggle here a bit. How do you do justice to the century’s worth of meddling that these folks have wrought on our planet? Let’s just pick one issue — say, the looming apocalypse of global warming. Most of the world would like to deal with the problem, so as to continue living. Big Oil, not so much, and so here we are.
Prop 87 represents the best opportunity you will likely ever see to get your licks in. Four billion bucks, right in the profit margin. If you let them keep it, they will just buy more Senators.
