The Players Club
Politics has long been the playground of millionaires. This election, however, the billionaires have taken over the table.
The biggest player this time out in California is billionaire Texas
oilman T. Boone Pickens, co-owner of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. The
company has pumped $19 million into Proposition 10, the $5 billion
state bond that would set up a rebate program for alternative-fuel
vehicles.
According to Judy Dugan, research director of the nonpartisan Consumer
Watchdog in Santa Monica, Pickens’ company controls 70 percent of the
compressed natural gas sold in the United States and would stand to
make a fortune fueling the newly subsidized trucks and cars.
However, Yes on 10 spokeswoman Amy Thoma tells us that the way the
measure is drafted, "there’s no guarantee any one company or type of
fuel will benefit."