Proposition 87 is trying to achieve for California what the Bush Administration is refusing to do for the United States - to tax oil profits in order to create a fund that will help introducing us to the world of tomorrow. Governor Schwarzenegger has not decided yet on his position - he still sits on the fence on this one because, as a Republican, he has gut instincts not to raise taxes.
Friedman asks him to overcome these instincts and to do the right thing by backing this proposition, and see in it as the ideal partner to his own renewable energy targets.

Up to now oil companies in California have paid a very little extraction fees compared to those in other states and this is a clear rip-off that ExxonMobil fights vehemently to keep it going on.

Proposition 87 suggests a modest tax of 1.5 - 6.0% on oil production depending on the price of oil. This shall go on until 2017 or until a fund of $4 billion has been created. These $4 billions are to be used to nurture new fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles and buildings. The money will create a consistent policy - a far cry from the on again - of again subsidization that was Washington’s practice that helped defeat any possibility for real progress. In effect Friedman points out that then Governor George W. Bush has created a healthy wind-farms industry in rural Texas by creating just this sort of a consistent nurturing mechanism, but then in Washington he just kept talking and forgot to lead.

Prop. 87 sets a goal of a 25% reduction from its present 16 billion gallons of gasoline a year, for  California in 10 years from now. This is what the Governor’s goals are in his own targets.
So here we have a way to reach those targets.

The original Thomas Friedman article is attached:

The Chief of Pacific Gas and Electric, chairman, CEO, and president of PG&E, the large California energy company, having looked at global warming, and convinced that mankind is responsible for the climate change, has decided to do the right thing and position in the process his company so that he turns a challenge into opportunity.

Now here we have a large industry chief looking squarely into the future. He is thus a backer of what the Governor is trying to achieve, and he is pointing out that by doing the right thing California is winning not just in the long run - even in the short term! Will Washington learn? Will other energy companies cooperate also?