Dozens of UCSB students and community members convened at Pardall Tunnel last Friday to protest Prop 23.
Once assembled, campaigners biked to the Calle Real Valero station in Goleta accompanied by police escorts to protest and stress the importance of green transportation alternatives. Should it pass, the proposition would temporarily repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which currently allows the state to set its own motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, until state unemployment rates drop to 5.5 percent.
Local citizens and students gather at Pardall Tunnel to protest and inform voters about Prop 23. The prop would repeal the Global Warming Acts Solution of 2006. 
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“We need to vote no on 23 because we need to step forward to a new green economy, not backward,” Williams said.
Additionally CALPIRG’s UCSB Chapter Chair Dan Herb, a fourth-year political science and economics major, stressed the importance of environmental consciousness.
“Asking students to vote on 23 is getting them to the polls in general,” Herb said. “I mean, the way we handle the green job industry and regulate climate affects everyone, student or not. If they care about the environment at all, people need to get out there and vote.”
While the California Jobs Initiative — which advocates Prop 23 — said the bill will supply jobs in the oil industry, opponents of the proposition speculate the bill will eliminate 500,000 jobs in the green energy industry.
Community member Martha Bell said, should the resolution pass, she personally will be unable to find work.
“I grew up in Houston and I’m currently being trained to get a job in the green energy sector,” Bell said. “This weekend there will be 23 protests across the state to get voters to vote no. If this passes we will lose 500,000 clean energy jobs.”
Unlike other pieces of legislation that have been highly publicized, campaign coordinator and fourth-year history major Christina Hatano, said this legislation has yet to receive much attention.
“Our generation is the first generation that’s grown up knowing the detriment of global warming and its effects so it’s important for students to help out,” Hatano said. “This protest is a good event to do because a lot of people don’t know about Prop 23.”
The California Jobs Initiative (CJI) is an oil corporation farce and fraud. There is no connection, whatsoever, between greenhouse gas emission reduction and the loss of jobs. This notion is an insult to the intelligence of the people of California. In fact, there is job growth in the clean, renewable energy industry. Chevron employs 65,000 worldwide and CJI is not going to change this. The only jobs created by the oil industry are clean-up jobs after oil spills and deep water, blow-outs and pump-handler jobs. CJI will make fantastic profits for the oil industry, increase air pollution, especially in communities… Read more »
I beg to differ. Valero and Tesoro have 4 refineries out of 6 in California and employ thousands of workers in this state. They produce the cleanest fuel in the U.S. Prop 23 does not effect any Califoria environmental law. It only suspends Cap-and-Trade until unemployment goes down 5.5% or less for 4 straight quarters. Our current ecological laws are working to clean our air and water just fine. California cannot afford to be the only state in the nation to have Cap-and-Trade. In fact, all other countries backed out of doing what Califoria is proposing because of the economy… Read more »
California is the leader on the path towards building a green economy. To this subject, you say that “it cannot afford to be the only state in the nation to have Cap-and-Trade”: but being the first to adapt to climate change would give it a comparative advantage on others. Californian companies would be leading in green technologies when more stringent national reglementation would be adopted. Moreover, prop 23 not only suspends cap-and-trade, but the whole AB 32 law: consequently, energy efficiency measures and provisions to spur green investments and facilitate the creation of green jobs would be suspended. Vote no… Read more »