LOS ANGELES (AP) — A ballot initiative primarily funded by Texas oil companies seeking to suspend California’s landmark climate law has failed.
Proposition 23 would have delayed greenhouse gas regulations until California’s unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent and stayed there for a year. Unemployment in California is now at 12.4 percent.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, environmentalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs had warned that passing the initiative Tuesday would derail a growing investment in alternative-energy technology in California.
The state’s 2006 climate law, known as AB32, is one of the Republican governor’s key environmental accomplishments.
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