Proposition 23 failed at the voting booth today as Californians favored environmental issues over potentially lowering the unemployment rate. Early returns had the measure losing 43 percent to 57 percent.

If passed, the proposition was projected to boost state economic activity and local sales revenue significantly, but at the expense of environmental protection.

The proposition would have suspended laws authorized under Assembly Bill 32 to put environmental restrictions on businesses until California’s unemployment rate not only dropped to at least 5.5 percent, but also maintained that number for one year.

State analysts and opponents of the proposition warned that the unemployment rate has only sustained a percentage that low three times since 1970.  There would be virtually no way California could have sustained a low enough unemployment rate to reinstate environmental protections if the proposition had passed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned against the proposition, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, Attorney General Jerry Brown and gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman all spoke out against it.

The two biggest supporters of prop 23 were Texas-based Valero and Tesoro oil companies.  Their oil refineries routinely rank among the country’s greatest polluters, and Prop 23 would have allowed them to continue doing so - at the expense of Californians’ health.