As Republicans and Democrats both take hits on oil companies making record profits in the shadow of upwardly spiraling gas prices, backers of the Clean Alternative Energy Act in California expect the turn in twice as many signatures needed to get their November initiative on the ballot. From the LA Times:
...backers of (the) initiative contend that collecting as much as $380 million a year from an extraction tax on all oil pumped from California fields and offshore platforms would fund research needed to break what President Bush has described as the country's addiction to oil
The campaign is expected to submit petitions with 1.2 million signatures, about twice the number required by law, by the end of the month, said Julie Buckner, a spokeswoman for the campaign. It is being bankrolled by Hollywood movie producer Steve Bing and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
High oil prices and profits, Buckner said, "are causing people to stop and think."
See more on the initiative and clean tech here.
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