California: Global warming showdown
People & Power investigates the problems with California’s effort to battle climate change.
Next week Americans go to the polls to elect Congress and state officials. In California they will also be voting on a proposal called Proposition 23, which could have a profound impact on efforts to deal with climate change.
In 2006, California passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, this was landmark legislation designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020.
However Proposition 23 would suspend efforts to reduce those emissions until the state’s unemployment rate stayed below 5.5 per cent for four consecutive quarters.
That has only been achieved three times in the last 40 years, and the number of jobless currently stands at more than 12 per cent.
With Barack Obama, the US president, and the Congress unable to pass a national clean energy bill, the state’s global warming law was being hailed as the most powerful stimulus for a green technology revolution in the US.
But as filmmakers Joe Rubin and Dan McKinney found out, powerful fossil fuel interests are determined to stop California from providing that lead.
This episode of People & Power can be seen from Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at the following times GMT: Wednesday: 1230; Thursday: 0130, 1400, 1930; Friday: 0630, 1630; Saturday: 0330, 2030; Sunday: 0030, 0530; Monday: 0830.