Whitman opposes Proposition 23

After she refused for months to take a position on Proposition 23, Republican candidate for governor Meg Whitman yesterday announced that she opposes the ballot measure that would indefinitely delay California’s landmark global warming law.

Whitman said that if she becomes governor, she’d use the power of that office to suspend the state’s global warming law for one year.

Proposition 23 would delay the law until the state’s unemployment rate falls to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year. Economists say that could take several years to happen.

The2006 law – known as AB32 – requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade.

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The former eBay chief executive argues that the new regulations required to do that would hurt businesses and kill jobs. She said her one-year suspension would balance the need for jobs with environmental concerns.

Her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown opposes any delay in putting the new law into effect. He argues that AB32 is important to the environment - and to fostering the state’s green industries.