The California Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill (ab1493) is a Fraud

Assembly Bill 1493, now sitting on Governor Davis’ desk waiting for his signature or veto, will do nothing to improve the environment and will harm the health (by diverting money from worthwhile causes) and pocketbook of all Californians.

How to get Calif. Gov. Davis to veto the stupid greenhouse gas bill

To stop AB1058/AB1493, citizens must demand that all elected or appointed government officials in the state of California immediately turn in their state-purchased vehicles in exchange for a fuel-efficient gasoline-electric or diesel-electric hybrid vehicle.

Tell me what cars your legislators drive

Send me an e-mail if your legislator(s) voted for the bill, and drive a large vehicle (big car, station wagon, truck, or SUV). They each get a $400/month automobile allowance that some of them use to drive big gas-guzzlers. All the citizens of California deserve to find out who these hypocrites are.

P.S. You might want to check out what kinds of autos their staffers are driving as well. Send me photos if you like.

Contact Gov. Davis and ask that he veto the bill:

Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
governor@governor.ca.gov

Contact your CA State Legislators

You can use CapWeb/votenet to find out who your state Senator and Representative are. Just enter your 4- or 9-digit ZIP code number on this page, and you will be presented with the contact information for both of your locally elected state representatives.

This bill must be vetoed because it gives extensive law-making power to the Air Resources Board—an appointed board of bureaucrats that has demonstrated its incompetence by forcing the use of the poisonous MTBE (causing a cleanup bill of $50–$100 Billion); the use of diesel fuel that damaged the engines of ambulances, fire engines, and many other diesel-powered vehicles; among other stupid things.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Nearly half of the lawmakers who have state-purchased vehicles drive low-gas-mileage sport utility vehicles or pickup trucks, and most of the sedans picked by legislators through that program also have less-than-average fuel efficiency.

…

In contrast, the most popular vehicle among California legislators, the Ford Expedition, a full-size SUV, gets as little as 12 mpg in the city and 16 mpg on the highway and produces 11 to 14 tons of greenhouse gases annually, depending on the year and style of the vehicle.

Below is my tally of the votes in favor of the bill, and what kind of state-purchased automobiles the legislators drive.

AB1493 Votes & the Cars They Drive

Senators voting for AB1493

Assemblymembers voting for AB1493

Richard Alarcón Dede Alpert Debra Bowen John Burton According to Matier and Ross1, is “still driving himself around in a three-year-old, $25, 500 Buick LeSabre. Wesley Chesbro Joseph Dunn Martha Escutia Liz Figueroa Betty Karnette Sheila Kuehl According to Matier and Ross1, has skipped the auto perk, but according to another report2, she drives “her own 1964 red Porsche convertible, which she says gets 24 mpg.”. Kevin Murray Jack O’Connell Deborah Ortiz Don Perata Richard Polanco Gloria Romero Jack Scott Byron Sher Nell Soto Jackie Speier Tom Torlakson John Vasconcellos Edward Vincent.

Alquist Dion Aroner Thomas Calderon Dennis Cardoza Wilma Chan Ed Chavez Judy Chu Rebecca Cohn Ellen Corbett Manny Diaz John Dutra According to Matier and Ross1, has skipped the auto perk. Marco Firebaugh Dean Florez Dario Frommer Goldberg Robert Hertzberg According to Matier and Ross1, “former Speaker Robert Hertzberg … had three cars at his beck and call—a 2001 Buick Park Avenue, a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria and, for his personal car, a 1998 Ford Expedition… After stepping down as speaker, … [he] traded in his $36,000 Expedition but kept the newer Park Avenue as his personal car.” Jerome Horton Hannah-Beth Jackson Fred Keeley Christine Kehoe Paul Koretz Carol Liu John Longville Alan Lowenthal Carole Migden George Nakano Joe Nation Gloria Negrete McLeod Jenny Oropeza Lou Papan Fran Pavley [author] Simon Salinas Kevin Shelley Joseph Simitian Darrel Steinberg Virginia Strom-Martin Helen Thomson Juan Vargas Howard Wayne Patricia Wiggins Rod Wright Speaker Herb Wesson According to the SF Chronicle’s Matier and Ross1, Speaker Wesson ordered “a brand new pair of supercharged Buick Park Avenues for his exclusive use in Sacramento and Los Angeles. The cost to taxpayers: nearly $40,000 apiece. … And that’s on top of the $40,000 Cadillac Seville that Wesson, an L.A. Democrat, has been driving for the past couple of years…”

Footnotes

1. Belt-tightening Sacramento style
2. Most legislators don’t lead by example in fuel efficiency drive

This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 18:56:44 PDT.

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