The way to create jobs? Pollute more!
Meg Whitman appears at a Silcon Valley Leadership Group gathering in Sunnyvale, CA (Justin Sullivan/Getty)
So far Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who is the only woman running to be California’s governor, has been short on specifics. In her recently launched radio ads, “She repeated her February vow to cut at least $15 billion in state spending and to eliminate redundant government agencies, and said she would lay off 40,000 state employees. But, as then, she offered no specific cuts nor did she suggest which agencies or employees she would target,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
But the Republican has been specific about one thing: She would take aim at two of the state’s landmark greenhouse reduction laws, AB 32 and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The reason? They’re stifling the economy! In a San Jose Mercury News op-ed, Whitman writes that the laws “will discourage job creation and could kill any recovery.”
Though Whitman’s stance is pretty typical of a GOP candidate (although AB 32 was signed – with much fanfare – by the state’s current Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenneger), it also contradicts what she herself preaches. Her Web site proclaims that Whitman “believes in protecting the environment. Because it’s important to the state and our future.”
The idea that climate change legislation and new jobs can’t co-exist is also pretty ridiculous. The green sector seems to hold the most potential for job growth. Gavin Newsom, also a candidate for governor, shot back at Whitman, and pointed out that “between 1997 and 2007, ‘clean energy spurred the opening of 10,209 businesses with 125,390 jobs in California’” according to the Pew Charitable Trust.
Whitman can adorn her Web site with poppy flowers, and proclaim her love of skiing all she wants. But in a state that treasures its role as a pioneer on environmental issues, ransacking one of its most important laws is not a great place to start.
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Nicely said, Sara.
Whitman has made a conscious decision to go after a primary victory by appealing to the segment of California Republicans who do not keep up with where jobs come from in today’s California. Gavin Newsom has it exactly right regarding the job growth that has occurred in the state over the past decade due to clean environment jobs. Indeed, its not just California. There is a general understanding that the best use for the empty factories dotting the landscape of all states will become dedicated to ‘green” and energy businesses simply because that is really all we have left to offer the world when it comes to manufacturing.
I had expected Whitman to propose incentives, changes in onerous tax laws and expensive employee protections as her ‘hook’. Apparently, her research is telling her that California GOPers don’t understand where their future bread will be buttered.
I’m wondering if we can get anyone on the right to admit that environmental moves can actually create jobs. Everything seems to be a job killer.
Part of Meg’s success at E-bay is due to shipping tens of thousands of software jobs over-seas.