"During the fall campaign, California's attention was focused on the presidential race and Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure. But in a historic, largely overlooked environmental shift, the state's voters also triggered a multibillion-dollar tidal wave of new green spending."

"By overwhelmingly passing Proposition 39, voters closed a tax loophole on out-of-state corporations that will generate $1.1 billion a year. But the measure, buried in a crowded ballot, also required that half of that money fund projects to install new windows, better insulation, modern lighting and more efficient heating and air conditioning at thousands of public schools and other government buildings over the next five years.

That windfall, roughly $550 million a year, or $2.75 billion before it sunsets in 2018, dwarfs anything that California or any other state has ever spent on energy efficiency for public buildings."

Paul Rogers reports for the San Jose Mercury News December 3, 2012. [2]