California, Dreamin’

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I have a piece over on the homepage today looking at the fight over California’s landmark climate law, which could be delayed if an insidious ballot measure passes next month. With climate legislation delayed indefinitely in Washington, California has become the battleground between environmental groups and fossil fuel interests.

California’s climate law is the most comprehensive piece of legislation to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in the US. It’s also the most important, as the state is often the leader on environmental initiatives. This is, of course, why Proposition 23, which would stop implementation of the law next year, has become a hot spot of action this November. As Wade Crowfoot, the West Coast political director of the Environmental Defense Fund, told me, “If you can drive a stake in the heart of climate policy making in California, it will have a massive political chilling effect elsewhere in the country.”

With that in mind, the folks over at Dirty Energy Money this week launched a site to track the money oil and gas interests are spending to kill the law. At the new site you can see exactly where the $8.3 million from oil and gas interests is coming from.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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