The former president tells a crowd of 5,000 that Prop. 87 would allow the state to do something remarkable -- save the planet.
Accusing oil companies of lying about the cost of Proposition 87, former President Clinton on Friday called "bogus" their contention that approving a tax on oil revenues would trigger higher gas prices for California motorists.
During a rally at UCLA, the former president said the state ballot measure would help California move toward less expensive, cleaner forms of energy by funding research into alternative fuels.
Gas prices are lower in other states that already have oil taxes like the one proposed by Proposition 87, Clinton added.
"California is being given an opportunity and an obligation to do something remarkable — to save the planet, improve our national security, create the next generation of good jobs for the American people," Clinton said.
The measure on the Nov. 7 ballot would impose up to $485 million a year in taxes on companies that extract oil from California land, with the money going to finance research and development of alternative energy. Over its life, the measure would raise $4 billion for grants and loans to projects developing alternative fuels and more energy-efficient vehicles.
With opponents, led by oil companies, pumping more than $52 million into the campaign to defeat the state ballot measure, supporters brought Clinton into the state just days after launching a television ad campaign in which his former vice president, Al Gore, said the measure would reduce the state's dependence on foreign oil and clean the air.
Clinton, still popular in a state that he twice won in presidential elections, will be featured in a new round of ads that were filmed during Friday's rally in front of a cheering crowd of 5,000, many of them students.
Opponents of Proposition 87 noted Friday that support for the measure is sagging, and predicted that the involvement of Clinton and Gore would not be enough to save a proposal that they say would create an unaccountable bureaucracy.
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What they should have said [and were probably thinking]...