As Governor, Phil Angelides will offer a real plan to make California the world's leader in reducing oil consumption: cleaning the air, combating global warming and curbing sprawl while creating tens of thousands of jobs and strengthening California's economy. The Clean California plan will set a goal to reduce gasoline and diesel use by 25 percent in ten years, putting California on a path for even steeper reductions in the following decade. His plan will include investment initiatives to spur new clean energy technology, new standards for automakers and oil companies, and a comprehensive smart growth plan. It will give California families the chance to cut their fuel costs, protect themselves against sudden upswings in gasoline prices, and reduce the time they spend stuck in congestion.

California is headed in the wrong direction

Our planet is heating up, with potentially catastrophic effects. Our nation is held hostage to its appetite for imported oil, putting our security at risk. Our state struggles to guard its quality of life as families cope with worsening traffic congestion. Air pollution clouds the skies of our major cities and the Central Valley, endangering the health of millions of our people. California, a state with 26 million vehicles that travel 314 billion miles a year and burn 15 billion gallons of gasoline, is on a path, over the next twenty years, to have 36 million vehicles that travel 446 billion miles and burn nearly 18 billion gallons. That path endangers both the health of our environment and the strength of our economy.

There is a better way. We can make California the world leader in reducing oil consumption by developing clean vehicles and fuel and by growing smarter. We can give Californians the choice to drive fewer miles and burn -- and pay for -- fewer gallons of gasoline. We can guard the public's health from air pollution and prevent traffic congestion from stealing even more of our time. We can create the clean technologies and the next generation of high-wage jobs to keep California at the front rank of the global economy.

President Bush and the Republican Congress remain locked in denial about the security and environmental risks of our reliance on oil and about global warming. They have refused to raise vehicle efficiency standards or vigorously pursue clean energy alternatives.

Governor Schwarzenegger has offered rhetoric about greenhouse gas targets and hydrogen highways but no real plan or substantial change of direction. In this election year, he is standing with Big Oil in opposing the investments California needs to make in clean fuels and vehicles.

As Governor, Phil Angelides will offer real action and a real plan, calling this generation of Californians to meet the challenge of reducing oil consumption to protect our security and environment and make California the global leader of the sustainable economy of the future.

The Angelides Clean California plan will take California in the right direction - setting a goal to reduce gasoline and diesel use by 25 percent in ten years.

1. Invest $4 billion of Prop 87 funds over the next decade to make California the global leader in developing and selling clean fuels, vehicles, and renewable energy.

California cannot meet the greenhouse gas targets in law without bold action to change the kinds of vehicles we drive and fuels we use. Phil Angelides is working with environmental groups, scientists, business leaders, public health organizations, and consumer groups to pass Proposition 87, the Clean Energy Initiative. It will create a 10-year, $4 billion program of incentives to California consumers and businesses to make and purchase cleaner, more efficient vehicles and renewable fuels, making them affordable and widely available. These investments, funded by a temporary fee on oil companies that extract oil in California, will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and protect California families from the rising price of gasoline, which now costs each California family an average of $3,000 a year. Proposition 87 will also fund research to spur the discovery of new clean fuel and energy technologies and move them toward the marketplace, creating jobs and new export opportunities for businesses.

Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes the measure, putting the profits of his oil industry allies over the health of our people and environment.

2. Invest $1.5 billion from California's state and local pension funds in clean technology and renewable energy.

Phil Angelides launched the Green Wave investment initiative in February 2004, calling on the State's pension funds to invest $1.5 billion in clean technology, alternative energy, and energy efficiency, to earn strong returns for the funds, create jobs, and improve the environment. Under his leadership, the California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System have moved forward to enact all the components of the Green Wave program. To build on this success, Phil Angelides will seek an additional $1.5 billion in Green Wave investments from our state pension funds, local pension funds, and other institutional investors.

3. Require that auto and oil companies give Californians clean fuel choices.

California drivers cannot free themselves from oil unless the marketplace gives them the choice to do so. Phil Angelides will seek legislation to mandate that all new vehicles sold in California be flexible-fuel cars, capable of running on any mix of gasoline and bio-fuels. There are already about 5 million "flex-fuel" vehicles on U.S. roads, such as many Ford Tauruses; it costs only about $150 extra to manufacture a flexible fuel vehicle and give consumers the choice to buy bio-fuels. The Clean California plan will require major oil companies to switch a portion of their filling station pumps to bio-fuels to match the number of flex-fuel vehicles on the road so that Californians with flexible-fuel vehicles have ready access to cleaner alternative fuels. Today, for example, only one public filling station in California sells E85 ethanol, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline for flex-fuel cars.

4. Convert all state and local government fleets to clean, efficient vehicles.

The public sector should lead the way in reducing oil consumption and reducing pollution. The Angelides plan - building on a law he sponsored in 2003 to green the state's vehicle fleet - will require vehicles purchased by state and local governments to be alternative fuel or efficient vehicles such as hybrids. By converting fleets of government vehicles, California can help prime the market for clean and renewable vehicles, bringing down costs for everyone.

5. Put in place a comprehensive smart growth plan for California to curb sprawl, clean up the air, and let Californians drive less.

To give Californians more transportation options and the choice to use and pay for fewer gallons of fossil fuels, we must choose to grow smarter. We must renew existing communities with urban infill housing, jobs and businesses, create transit-oriented, walkable, well-designed, vibrant urban communities, and ensure sustainable growth for our future. A recent study in the Sacramento region showed that smart growth can reduce vehicle miles traveled by 25 percent below what would occur if current development patterns continue.

The comprehensive Angelides smart growth plan will build on his groundbreaking Double Bottom Line and Smart Investments initiatives that have directed $26 billion in capital to revitalize urban neighborhoods and curb sprawl. The plan will:

• Direct state transportation, community development, and infrastructure grants, loans, and bonds to rebuild and improve existing neighborhoods, not produce sprawl, and to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled. Smart investments in urban housing, mass transit, urban parks and open space, and financial incentives for smart growth will give Californians more transportation and housing options and protect our air and natural resources.
  
  
• Adopt strong state laws and policies to require meaningful regional growth plans and local general plans that achieve smart growth targets: identification and protection of open space and farmland; a specified reduction of vehicle miles driven; a range of housing opportunities; and walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that can be served effectively by transit. These plans should make infill the first priority for meeting new housing needs.
  
  
• Provide incentives to communities that meet or exceed their smart growth targets and give them new tools to do so. Communities that meet their targets should receive priority funding from the state for transportation and other infrastructure grants. Fee programs, like those recently adopted by the San Joaquin Air Quality District, should be utilized to reward projects that reduce residents' need to drive long distances for work and shopping.
  
  
• Reform the local government finance system so that communities can fund needed public services without resorting to sprawl.
  

 Download the PDF version of this plan.