REDWOOD NEEDLES

Presented by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter Newsletter, The REDWOOD NEEDLES

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Stop Proposition 37, the polluter protection act

An obscure-looking initiative placed on the November ballot by big oil, tobacco and liquor companies could pose a major obstacle to environmental protection. Proposition 37, entitled the "2/3 Vote Preservation Act," has earned the tag "Polluter Protection Act" because it's designed to let polluters and others who cause clear and detrimental social, environmental, or economic impacts get off the hook for the costs of mitigating the damage. Prop. 37 is a constitutional amendment that would reclassify mitigation fees as taxes, thereby subjecting them to a two-thirds vote requirement for passage in the Legislature or local communities.

If this initiative passes, a variety of fees intended to make the responsible parties pay for cleaning up after themselves would be virtually unpassable. Such potential environmental measures as increased fees for disposal of tires (in the wake of disastrous tire fires) or fees on refiners to pay for MTBE cleanup would become taxes subject to the 2/3 vote requirement. Passing tough environmental regulations and fees is difficult enough when only a simple majority is necessary &endash; attaining the 2/3 super-majority would be almost impossible given the money and clout of the corporate polluter lobbies.

As The Sacramento Bee has editorialized: "the initiative won't change the underlying economic reality, which is that someone has to pay the costs of mitigating pollution; if not the polluters, then the rest of us." A quick look at the list of contributors to Prop. 37 demonstrates who would benefit from its passage: Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol generated the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The list of opponents already includes California's leading environmental groups, several unions and consumer organizations, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause.

For more information on how to help stop the Polluter Protection Act, see www.polluterprotection.com, or contact Bill Magavern, 916-557-1100, magavern@rcip.com.

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