10-27-08 by dugan
The No On Proposition 10 campaign reports today that oil and gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens has now poured $19 million dollars into his campaign for Proposition 10, the California ballot initiative that would benefit him personally. The official contributor of all that green is Clean Energy Fuels Corp, which is a natural gas fuels company largely owned by Pickens that has never turned a profit and whose stock is at under $10, off more than 50% from a year ago. But Clean Energy Fuels, of which Pickens is majority owner, would be the top beneficiary of Prop 10’s billions of dollars in tax credits for natural gas-fueled trucks. Sweet.
Or, as the California Consumer Federation puts it:
Clean Energy Fuels is a small company that loses money every year.
How can it afford to lavish $19 million on a ballot measure?” asked
Richard Holober, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of
California. “The answer is simple: Instead of investing in research and
development, Mr. Pickens’ Clean Energy is investing in buying an
election. This massive political spending by a small company is proof
that passage of Proposition 10 would be a bonanza for Mr. Pickens.”
Birdies tell us that Proposition 10 is trailing in private polls despite Pickens’ lavish funding. But Pickens’ campaign consultants and media buyers are obviously making a fortune. And a big media blitz in the last days of the campaign could conceivably overcome the opposition to Prop 10 of every major environmental group, consumer group and anti-tax group, plus the state’s top environmental regulator, Mary Nichols. Check out the "No on 10" web site here.