The oil industry has derailed an environmental bill in California designed to reduce gasoline use by up to 50 percent by 2030.
The Guardian reports:
Senate president pro tempore Kevin de Leon announced on Wednesday that he would amend the bill, SB350, to drop the petroleum provisions. It will be changed in the assembly’s natural resources committee as soon as Thursday to deal only with increasing the state’s renewable electricity supply and boosting energy efficiency in buildings through retrofits and upgrades.
With only two days left in the legislative session, “we could not cut through the million-dollar smokescreen created by a single special-interest with a singular motive and a bottomless war chest”, he said in a statement.
The Western States Petroleum Association – a trade organization representing petroleum companies including Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil, said in a statement that the fuel provisions were “arbitrary and infeasible”, but with that portion of the bill deleted, “we can move forward and work together on other climate change efforts”.
SB350 has been the focus of an intense media and lobbying campaign by petroleum interests in recent weeks.
Read more here.
