Is Valero Behind CMTA's "Junk Economics" Study?

Now that the Legislative Analyst's Office has ridiculed the "Varshney study" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/18/BAPS1CI26G.DTL, the cornerstone of the polluter's AB 32's job loss and cost arguments, Valero and the oil industry are back with more junk economics. 

 

This morning, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association (CMTA) will hold a press event touting a new oil industry-funded "study" about the impacts of pollution-reducing legislation from the right-wing Pacific Research Institute. 

 

This political event comes days after CMTA endorsed the polluter's deceptive job-killing ballot proposition being funded by Texas oil companies -- despite opposition to the Valero initiative from the state's leading employers, including Google, eBay, and Waste Management (even the CMTA members the California Chamber of Commerce and Chevron are not supporting it!).

 

In any case, here a few things you should know about this oil industry propaganda and its backers.

• Valero is a leading member of CMTA and is spending more than $500,000 on an initiative to suspend AB32. Oil companies are responsible for 89 percent of the funding for the initiative, and more than 70 percent is from Texas. (Source: California Secretary of State).
• Valero lobbyist Michael Carpenter, is a board member of the Pacific Research Institute, funders of the study. (http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Pacific_Research_Institute and http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1237027&session=2009).
• The author of the study, Thomas Tanton, is a consultant to the oil and gas industry and Senior Research Fellow with the Pacific Research institute where a Valero lobbyist sits on his board (http://www.pacificresearch.org/keypeople/thomas-tanton). He formerly was a VP at the Institute for Energy Research, which is funded by oil and gas interests http://www.desmogblog.com/tom-tanton. 
• Tanton's bio from the Heartland Institute, a right-wing "think tank" that bashes climate change scientists, notes that Tanton "frequently publishes and speaks against alarmist and reactionary policies and government failures." http://www.globalwarmingheartland.com/expert.cfm?expertId=414.
• On the "RedneckUSA.com" website, Tanton even argues that development of renewable energy in California will not help reduce our dependence on Middle East oil http://redneckusa.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/top-ten-energy-myths/.
• CMTA's Dorothy Rothrock was an industry energy consultant for years before joining CMTA. http://www.cmta.net/bio.php?people_id=rothrock_dorothy&popup=1. 
• Even when AB 32 was signed into law -- and unemployment was 4.8 percent, Rothrock criticized it http://www.cmta.net/bio.php?people_id=rothrock_dorothy&popup=1, which makes her support for an initiative that would have the law take effect when unemployment levels reach that number again quite suspect.

Numerous independent studies show that AB 32 is generating a new clean tech economy for California and will create 112,000 - 403,000 new jobs by 2020. Last week, more than 6,000 attendees and 350 companies jammed the Sacramento convention center for the Green Technology expo.

 

 

 

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