It’s tough to beat a slogan that says, “Make big oil pay for cleaner energy.” I mean, we all want oil companies to pay big after they have continually robbed us at the pumps. However, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Proposition 87 claims that oil companies in California will be taxed $4 billion to help fund alternative energy sources and “promises” to make it illegal for oil companies to pass the tax onto consumers.

The reality is Proposition 87 will lead to higher gas prices. You're dreaming if you think they won't. We’re already spending a fortune at the pumps, and to put an extra tax on oil would be ludicrous, especially because the measure does not even assure cleaner air.

Although we do need to find alternative energy sources that are less harmful to the environment, Proposition 87 isn’t the way to go about it. The wording in the proposal does not sufficiently outline what the funds are for, and it does not promise that the funds will be allocated to improving cleaner air. The legislative analysis even noted that Proposition 87, "could be interpreted in two different ways."

Oil companies have never had restrictions on raising gas prices, so their “promise” is more like a fabricated lie. The prices go up and down, daily, as they have in the past. There is no way to prevent the tax from being passed onto consumers. A big tax for oil becomes a big price for you and me.

Proposition 87 would also create a huge new state bureaucracy that can spend billions each year doing whatever they want with the money. There are no requirements in the measure to show that petroleum fuels are being reduced and that the money will be used to find alternative sources for energy.

The initiative does not require that the $4 billion is spent on funding for alternative energy sources, which would promote cleaner air quality. Instead it is given to 50 new political appointees to spend the money however they see fit. All in all, it’s a chunk of money added to a lost cause, not cleaner air.

This measure will also result in the loss of both State General Funds and local revenues, according to the State Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Another contributing factor is that this initiative will further our dependency on foreign oil. In this case we’ll be relying on oil from the Middle East, which is more expensive to ship, and even more to refine, once it’s here.

California’s is already one of the highest taxed oil states. If Proposition 87 is passed, it will be, by far, the highest taxed oil state in the country.

“Everybody agrees it’s a good idea to look for alternative fuel,” said Bill George, a spokesman with a “No on 87” campaign. “But this is not the way to get there, by creating a bureaucracy that is outside the purview of the traditional state checks and balances.”

Every year politicians draw up these grand initiatives that are supposed to improve our state. However, there is always a catch that is unclear, an often vague proposal and the choppy wording which makes it difficult to interpret how the initiative is fail proof. All Proposition 87 would do is allow oil companies to raise the price of gas and Californians will feel it where it matters most, in our pockets.