California, Dreamin’


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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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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