As of this month, it’s official that California’s residents will be voting on the November ballot as to whether they would like to suspend the law that has been put in effect to help the state take responsibility for its greenhouse gas emissions.

When they announced a cutting-edge legislative initiative to fight the climate change caused by Global Warming in late 2009, California was hailed as ambitious, meant positively by some and negatively by others. Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) was designed to aid California in meeting its goals of reaching 1990 level emissions by the year 2020, using a cap and trade program as well as other methods. The contention of some, was that cap and trade methods do not work to reduce the act of pollution but simply shift it around to those with the deepest pockets, and others suggested that the regulations would force citizens to purchase more costly energy options than other parts of the nation. Many were simply happy that someone was doing something concrete to fight Climate Change.

Thus far, a good portion of the law’s components have been approved and gone into effect. The industry of alternative energies has begun to bloom in California, but these successes may all be shut down in short order, should the people take the bate and vote it into suspension.

This move is, of course, backed by the oil industry that AB32 was designed, in part, to subdue. More surprising, perhaps, is that it is not only supported by those who make money through the oil industry, but it originated in the meeting rooms of Texas oil giants Valero Energy Inc. and Tesoro Corp. What they are calling the “California Jobs Initiative” paints AB 32 as a tax on homeowners, further suggests a definitive (unexplained) connection between this law and job loss, and devalues any and all progress that has been made and could be made in the direction of clean energy. The campaign, born in oil bureaucracy, uses the word “bureaucrat” to give AB 32 a negative taste several times in the few paragraphs on its home page.

The good news (for us, for Governor Schwarzenegger, for California, for the planet) is that there has been a push back- an organization called “Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs” has been formed by environmentalists and green tech professionals alike. They seem to be a group to reckon with, based on the bold imagery evident immediately upon arrival at their website’s home page.

As the opposing sides battle this controversial proposition out over the next 5 months, hopefully all truths will come to light so that citizens of California may make the most wise decisions, unskewed by false information.