A couple of years into Jerry Brown’s first governorship Dow Chemical Co. abandoned plans to build a $500 million petrochemical plant, citing regulatory red tape.
A half-billion dollars was serious money in those days, the equivalent of perhaps $5 billion today, and Brown’s critics quickly laid the blame at his door.
“He (Brown) didn’t pull the trigger, but he bought the pistol and bullets,” the most vociferous critic thundered. “There are certain mad hatters in the Brown administration who will, if they have their own way, drive all significant industry out of California.”
That critic was John Henning, the longtime head of the California Labor Federation.
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