School closures loom, as California donates its oil and gas to the cash rich oil industry

June 10, 9:57 AMSF Energy Policy ExaminerAnn Garrison

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  Dem. Nicole Parra, replaced by Rep. Danny Gilmore.

California is the only state in the U.S. that donates its oil and natural gas reserves to the private oil and gas industry.  Were it a nation, it would be the only nation in the world. 

Last year, on March 14th, 2008, the California State Legislature, faced with school closures, teacher layoffs, and, radical cuts in all things pubic, finally considered a 9.9% oil extraction tax that would have raised $1.2 billion.  

Julia Brownley, Assemblywoman from California's 41st District, stood to speak for the legislation in behalf of California's K-12 schoolchildren:

In the evening, after three hours of debate, the Assembly defeated the oil extraction tax, voting on almost perfectly rigid party lines.  Forty-five Democrats voted yeah, 30 Republicans nay.  Democrat, Nicole Parra, of the State's  30th Assembly District, including oil heavy Kern County, voted nay, with the Republicans.  Parra consistently opposed an oil extraction tax, and, last year, she infuriated fellow Democrats by endorsing her pro-oil Republican successor Danny Gilmore. 

The Republican minority held sway, in 2008, because Proposition 13, a ballot measure passed in California in 1978, stipulates that any budget or tax measure requires a 2/3 majority to pass.

This week, as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang warn that California may have to close its doors if the legislature doesn't pass a balanced budget by June 15th, the legislature may again consider an oil extraction tax. 

They will also consider  extension of oil and gas drilling leases off the coast of Santa Barbara, which suffered the 1969 oil spill which gave rise to the adamant coalition of surfers, beachcombers, coastal residents, and environmentalists determined to defend the California Coast.  The new oil and gas drilling lease extensions would raise only $100 million in oil lease revenues this year, and unless an oil extraction tax is passed, would mean donating more of California's oil and gas reserves to the cash-rich and globally destructive oil industry.