California will likely be the site of what could be an important, seminal election battle over promoting clean energy at the expense of the oil industry (literally). The initiative campaign is being led by Sun Microsystems co-founder and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. The Economist writes this week:
(Khosla's) eyes have now turned towards a new target—the oil industry. He and Stephen Bing, a flamboyant Hollywood producer, are financing a campaign to get Californians to endorse clean energy in a state-wide vote next November. “Californians for Clean Energy” will need to get more than 500,000 signatures just to make it onto the ballot. If it were then passed, its effect would be to increase taxes on Californian oil production by up to $380m a year, eventually raising billions of dollars for investments in clean energy. The plan is to help California cut its oil use by one-quarter within a decade, thereby setting a powerful example for the rest of the world.
The story continues:
It is easy to dismiss this enthusiasm as the irrelevant obsession of a rich hobbyist or the harmless utopianism of a capitalist who has made his pile. But the big oil companies are certainly not taking Mr Khosla lightly. The oil industry is funding a lavish counter-campaign to his ballot initiative called “Californians Against Higher Taxes”. Perhaps the best reason to take Mr Khosla seriously is that his professional success and Republican leanings mean that he has the ears of powerful people. He has been making the rounds, from the White House and Capitol Hill to the World Economic Forum at Davos and the TED conference (a big annual gathering for top venture capitalists), banging the drum for ethanol. Before Larry Page, Google's co-founder, attended a recent TED conference in Monterey, California, he was sceptical about ethanol. After hearing Mr Khosla, he decided to help fund the cause. “When have you ever seen greens, farmers and guys like me and Larry on the same page?” demands Mr Khosla.
This will be interesting. It's always easier to defeat an initiative than to pass one. Opponents only need to create requisite FUD around a small sub-section of the proposal. Throw in the obvious attempts of oil companies to portray this as a nail in the coffin for your SUV and, we'll see if the non-coastal part of the state goes for it.
It will also be facinating to watch how Silicon Valley elites team with Hollywood stars to pass this. Maybe this sponsorship will spur an eventual new dawn of Scarlett Johansson testifying in front of Congress on behalf of R&D funding. We can dare to dream.
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