[env-trinity] The big corporate money behind Governor Jerry Brown

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563062/-The-21-8-million-dumped-into-Prop-1-campaign-revealed-the-Big-Money-behind-Jerry-Brown

Photo of Jerry Brown by Dan Bacher.


The big corporate money behind Governor Jerry Brown

Big Money interests dumped $21.8 million into Yes on Prop. 1 campaign


by Dan Bacher

This November 4 will be the second anniversary of the passage of  
Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial water bond, a  
measure that fishing groups, California Indian Tribes, grassroots  
conservation groups and environmental justice advocates opposed   
because they considered it to be a water grab for corporate  
agribusiness and Big Money interests.

Proponents of Proposition 1 contributed a total of $21,820,691 and  
spent a total of $19,538,153 on the successful campaign. The  
contributors are a who’s who of Big Money interests in California,  
including corporate agribusiness groups, billionaires, timber barons,  
Big Oil. the tobacco industry and the California Chamber of Commerce.  
They provide a quick snapshot of the corporate interests behind the  
questionable environmental policies of Brown.

Many people voted for the proposition only because Brown said no bond  
funds would be used for the widely-unpopular Delta Tunnels. However,  
after the election, as Proposition 1 opponents expected, the Brown  
administration did indeed admit that it could use water bond funds for  
the massive tunnels project.

In April 2015, an administration official admitted that the state  
could use money from Proposition 1, the water bond, to pay for  
"habitat mitigation" linked to the construction and operation of the  
massive Delta Tunnels.

Richard Stapler, spokesman for the California Department of Natural  
Resources, "acknowledged that the money [for delta habitat  
restoration] could conceivably come from Proposition 1, the $7.5  
billion water bond that California passed last year,” according to  
Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle.(www.sfgate.com/...)

Restore the Delta and other public trust advocates at the time slammed  
Governor Brown for breaking his campaign promise that bond money  
wouldn't be used to mitigate the environmental damage caused by the  
tunnels, a $67 billion project designed to export Sacramento River  
water to agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies  
and oil companies conducting fracking and steam injection operations. (www.eastbayexpress.com/...)

More recently, on August 10, 2016, the state’s Joint Legislative Audit  
Committee voted to conduct an audit into funding for the tunnels, as  
requested by Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman and state Senator  
Lois Wolk. It will be interesting to see what this audit turns out,  
including possible use of Prop. 1 money to fund planning for the Delta  
Tunnels, now called the “California WaterFix.”  (www.oaklandmagazine.com/...)

The vote for the audit was spurred by the  U.S. Department of  
Interior’s Inspector General’s opening of  an investigation into the  
possible illegal use of millions of dollars by the California  
Department of Water Resources in preparing the Environmental Impact  
Statement (EIS) for the Delta tunnels Plan. The investigation resulted  
from a complaint that the Public Employees for Environmental  
Responsibility (PEER) filed on the behalf of a U. S. Bureau of  
Reclamation employee on February 19, 2016.

The complaint, made public in a statement from PEER on  April 11,  
details how a funding agreement with DWR is “illegally siphoning off  
funds that are supposed to benefit fish and wildlife to a project that  
will principally benefit irrigators” under the California Water Fix,  
the newest name for the Delta Tunnels Plan.

While mainstream media covered both the audit and the federal  
investigation into the tunnels funding, the corporate media and most  
“alternative” media outlets have completely failed to cover the much  
bigger issue of the Big Money, $21,820,691, behind the passage of  
Proposition 1.

Guess who was one of the contributors to the Prop. 1 campaign? Yes,  
Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon, owner of The  
Wonderful Company and largest orchard fruit grower in the world,  
contributed $150,000.

Corporate agribusiness interests, the largest users of federal and  
state water project water exported through the Delta pumping  
facilities, contributed $850,000 to the campaign, including the  
$150,000 donated by Resnick. The California Farm Bureau Federation  
contributed $250,000, the Western Growers Service Association donated  
$250,000 and California Cotton Alliance contributed $200,000.

Resnick and his wife, Lynda, have been instrumental in promoting  
campaigns to eviscerate Endangered Species Act protections for Central  
Valley Chinook salmon and Delta smelt populations and to build the  
fish-killing peripheral tunnels - and have made millions off reselling  
environmental water to the public. (www.dailykos.com/...)

The largest individual donor in the Yes on Prop. 1 campaign was Sean  
Parker, who contributed $1 million to the campaign. Parker is an  
entrepreneur and venture capitalist who cofounded the file-sharing  
computer service Napster and served as the first president of the  
social networking website Facebook. He also cofounded Plaxo, Causes,  
and Airtime.

Four members of the Fisher family, who own the controversial Gap  
stores, collectively donated $1.5 million to the Yes. on Prop. 1 and  
Prop. 2 campaign. They also own the Mendocino Redwood Company and  
Humboldt Redwood Company, formerly the Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO),  
more than half a million acres of redwood forest lands in total.

Doris F. Fisher contributed $499,000, John J. Fisher $351,000, Robert  
J. Fisher $400,000 and William S. Fisher $250,000. The Gap become  
notorious among labor and human rights advocates for employing  
sweatshop labor in the Third World to produce its clothes.

In a major conflict of interest, Robert Fisher profits by logging  
North Coast forests while he serves as co-chair of a little-known  
cabinet-level body in Sacramento called the "California Strategic  
Growth Council (SGC)," according to reporter Will Parrish in the East  
Bay Express. (www.eastbayexpress.com/...)

"Enacted by the state legislature in 2008, the SGC is a cornerstone of  
Governor Jerry Brown's efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions,"  
Parrish wrote. "The panel has the broad and unprecedented mandate of  
coordinating implementation of California's climate change  
prescriptions across all levels of state government, while also  
preparing the state to accommodate a projected population of 50  
million by the year 2050."

"As such, Robert Fisher, whose close relationship with Brown is well- 
known within the corridors of the state Capitol, is not only in charge  
of helping set California climate change policy, but he also profits  
handsomely from harvesting living species that are increasingly being  
recognized as one of our last best hopes for forestalling the  
catastrophic impacts of global warming," said Parrish.

Aera Energy LLC, a company jointly owned by affiliates of Shell and  
ExxonMobil, contributed $250,000 to the Yes on Proposition 1 and 2  
campaign, according to the California Fair Political Practices  
Commission (FPPC). Aera Energy LLC is one of California's largest oil  
and gas producers, accounting for nearly 25 percent of the state's  
production, according to the company’s website. (www.aeraenergy.com/...)

Tobacco giant Philip Morris also contributed $100,000 to Governor  
Brown’s ballot measure committee established to support Propositions 1  
and 2. On October 20, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action  
Network (ACS CAN) called on the governor to return that money.

A total of eleven ballot measure campaign committees registered in  
support of Proposition 1 and 2, according to Ballotpedia  
(ballotpedia.org/..._(2014)

In contrast with the $21,820,691 contributed and the $19,538,153 spent  
by backers of Prop. 1, opponents of the measure raised only $101,149  
and spent $86,347 during the campaign. To put that in perspective,  
note that just one big grower, Stewart Resnick, contributed $150,000  
to the Prop. 1 campaign, more than all of the opponents combined. And  
Resnick wasn’t even one of the top 23 donors, with Sean Parker being  
the largest individual donor at $1,000,000!

In spite of Jerry Brown’s cynical rhetoric about “green energy” and  
“climate change” at climate conferences and carefully choreographed  
greenwashing events, the money spent by corporate, big money interests  
on the Yes on Proposition 1 and 2 campaign reveals who really is  
behind the Governor’s anti-environmental policies.

Consumer Watchdog report reveals that Big Oil & utilities donated $9.8  
to Brown

A groundbreaking report released by Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica- 
based consumer organization, on August 10 puts Governor Brown in an  
even less flattering light.

The group reported that twenty-six energy companies including the  
state’s three major investor-owned utilities, Occidental, Chevron, and  
NRG—all with business before the state—donated $9.8 million to Jerry  
Brown’s campaigns, causes, and initiatives, and to the California  
Democratic Party since he ran for Governor.

“Donations were often made within days or weeks of winning favors,”  
Consumer Watchdog said. “The three major investor-owned utilities  
alone contributed nearly $6 million.”

“An exhaustive review of campaign records, publicly-released emails  
and other documents at PUCPapers.org, court filings, and media  
reports, shows that Brown personally intervened in regulatory  
decisions favoring the energy industry, and points to Brown and his  
operatives having used the Democratic Party as a political slush fund  
to receive contributions from unpopular energy companies in amounts  
greater than permitted to his candidate committee," the group claimed.  
"Between 2011 and 2014, the energy companies tracked by Brown’s Dirty  
Hands donated $4.4 million to the Democratic Party, and the Democratic  
Party gave $4.7 million to Brown’s re-election. Earmarking to the  
Democratic Party is illegal. Consumer Watchdog is forwarding its  
report to the Fair Political Practices Commission.”

“The timing of energy industry donations around important legislation  
and key pro-industry amendments, as well as key regulatory decisions  
in which Brown personally intervened, raises troubling questions about  
whether quid pro quos are routine for this administration,” said  
consumer advocate Liza Tucker, author of the report, Brown’s Dirty  
Hands. “While Brown paints himself as a foe of fossil fuels, his  
Administration promoted reckless oil drilling, burning dirty natural  
gas to make electricity, and used old hands from industry and  
government, placed in key regulatory positions, to protect the fossil  
fuel-reliant energy industry.”

You can download the report here: www.consumerwatchdog.org/...

View a video on the report here: www.youtube.com/...

Donations to Yes on Prop. 1 & 2 Campaign

The committees and money raised for the Yes on 1 and 2 campaign are as  
follows:

• California Business Political Action Committee, Sponsored by the  
California Chamber of Commerce: $1,169,500

• Wetlands Conservation Committee, Sponsored by Ducks Unlimited,  
Audubon California and The Nature Conservancy, Yes on Prop. 1: $265,000

• Conservation Action Fund - Yes on Proposition 1 and 2 - Sponsored by  
Conservation Organizations: $1,042,526

• Sac. Valley Water & Rice for Prop 1: $72,356

• Brown; Yes on Props 1 and 2 A Bipartisan Coalition of Business,  
Labor, Republicans, Democrats and Governor: $17,690,658

• Think Long Committee, Inc., Sponsored by Nicolas Berggruen Institute  
Trust, Supporting Propositions 1 & 2 (Non-Profit 501(C)(4)): $250,000

• Western Plant Health Association, Supporting Propositions 1 and 2  
(Non-Profit 501 (C) (6)): $100,000

• NRDC Action Fund California Ballot Measures Committee - Yes on Prop.  
1: $12,653

• Southern California District Council of Laborers Issues PAC $203,662

• Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coaltion Issues PAC -  
Yes on Props 1 and 2: $842,896

• The California Conservation Campaign: $171,440

These committees raised a total of $21,820,691 and spent a total of  
$19,538,153.

Top 23 Contributors to Prop. 1 and 2 Campaign:

Brown for Governor 2014    $5,196,529

Sean Parker    $1,000,000

L. John Doerr    $875,000

California Alliance for Jobs - Rebuild California Committee    $533,750

The Nature Conservancy    $518,624

California Hospitals Committee    $500,000

Doris F. Fisher    $499,000

Health Net    $445,600

Robert Fisher    $400,000

John Fisher      $351,000

Aera Energy LLC    $250,000

California American Council of Engineering Companies    $250,000

California Farm Bureau Federation    $250,000

California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems    $250,000

Dignity Health    $250,000

Kaiser Permamente    $250,000

Northern California Carpenters Regional Council Issues PAC    $250,000

Reed Hastings    $250,000

SW Regional Council Of Carpenters    $250,000

Think Long Committee, Inc.    $250,000

Western Growers Service Corporation $250,000

William Fisher    $250,000
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