04-06 by Court
Today the San Diego Union Tribune added to the chorus of media criticism about junkets for California politicians flying around the world on the dime of the world’s largest oil companies.
The story rehashes the scandal about the overseas trips financed by the Chevron-backed California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s trip to the Copacabana. My colleague Carmen Balber demanded full disclosure from two energy oversight chairs who just took a trip to Japan financed by that Foundation, and filed a public records act request for the documents from the trip and the agenda.
A new tidbit about another oil industry financed foundation surfaced in the Union Tribune Story. Here it is:
This week the California Climate Action Registry, which was set up by the state to promote greenhouse gas reduction, sent a variety of top Schwarzenegger administration officials and one legislator to Europe to talk about fighting global warming.
The registry, which counts counties, universities and manufacturing companies as members, gets much of its funding from a variety of large corporations, including Shell Oil, BP America and Chevron USA.
“We see it as an educational trip,” said Aaron McClear, press secretary for Schwarzenegger.
With the Schwarzenegger administration being educated by the oil companies, you can bet those greenhouse gas reduction regulations won’t pack the punch Schwarzenegger promised they would.