Despite his perma-slick hair, Mayor Newsom isn't exactly making friends in petroleum industry on his run for Lieutenant Governor by speaking out against Proposition 23 which will be put in front of voters on this November's statewide ballot. Also known as the California Jobs Initiative, Prop 23 would put the greenhouse emissions regulations signed in to law by Gov. Schwarzenegger back in 2006 on hold until California's unemployment rate has been under 5.5% for a full year.
While the idea of getting Californians back to work seems nobel enough, Mayor Newsom isn't convinced the proposition has the state's best interests in mind. The measure is backed by Tesoro and Valero, two names you might recognize from the last time you made a roadtrip down I-5, who have both racked up "hundreds of violations of state and local health and air pollution laws in the Bay Area" according to the folks from No on 23. Newsom goes so far as to say he thinks, "they care about their bottom line" while reminding us that he feels green collar jobs are our ticket out of the employment slump. We tend to agree that Prop 23 seems to have more to do with getting the state off the backs of the oil companies than with creating new jobs.
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