Text 100's new CleanTech team got an early insight into the scale of the issues and challenges they're biting off when President Bill Clinton came to San Francisco yesterday evening. Bill was in town in support of the 'Yes' campaign behind California's clean air initiative Proposition 87.
Perhaps surprisingly for a state grappling with the worst air quality in the US, proposition 87 is not sure to pass, largely thanks to a $100M campaign against it by the large oil companies, but also because the initiative has failed to make specific guarantees about air quality improvements.
President Clinton concedes that Prop 87 is not perfect and that it is much easier for the oil companies to see what they will lose than it is for '87's proponents to guarantee what we all will gain. However, as we've written here before, Bill is willing to make guarantees about one thing: Proposition 87 will bring improvements in air quality. It will certainly create new jobs and it will certainly accelerate the growth of the CleanTech industry in California. If it passes...
Of course, that industry has already spawned, but as Bill put it, wouldn't it be great if the United States stopped being the caboose on the world's train to the future? Text 100's CleanTech practice thinks so.
David McCulloch.
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