Jay Inslee Continues His Carbon Crusade – Now Through Executive Order (Fiat)…

May 1, 2014 by Leave a comment

Tuesday morning, Governor Jay Inslee signed a climate change Executive Order. This Executive Order does a few things:

  • creates a 21-member Carbon Emissions Reduction Taskforce to provide recommendations on the design and implementation of a Cap n’ Trade program to be submitted to the legislature in January 2015. The Taskforce was handpicked by the governor more on this below;
  •  directs state agencies to eliminate the use of coal generated electricity;
  •  requires WSDOT to develop an action plan to promote “clean transportation, and study alternative transportation revenue sources such as a vehicle miles traveled fee and system wide tolling. In addition, OFM is tasked with evaluating the feasibility of a adopting a low carbon fuel standard;
  •  charges the state Department of Commerce with producing a program to develop and deploy renewable energy technology with an emphasis on solar power;
  • the Department of Commerce must also work with the State Building Code Council to accelerate a program promoting energy efficient building, including retrofitting;
  • the state Department of Ecology tasked with recommending updates to the state’s Greenhouse Gas emission standards by July of 2014.

Studies have shown that the cost of a low carbon fuel standard could lead to increased gas prices of over $1 a gallon. That’s $1 dollar more just so a few folks in Olympia can feel good about themselves. This won’t create one inch of new infrastructure and in fact it may make it much more difficult for new infrastructure to get built down the line.

A vehicle miles traveled program, which is also something being looked at through all of this will not only create a privacy nightmare for you, your family, and your business, but it will punish you financially the more you drive in a year.

How do you think these types of programs will impact the cost of freight moving through the state…like your materials and supplies? How about the direct increase of your own transportation costs?

A cap n’ trade program that puts limits on the carbon emissions on businesses in Washington State may not directly impact small businesses at first, but you can rest assured that those larger businesses feeling it in the wallet will most certainly pass the costs downward on to you, your business, and your family.

Are you ready for the Department of Commerce trying to create new mandates and regulations on how you build new construction? If you think the current energy code is too strict, just wait…

So just who has Jay Inslee appointed to help him make these decisions? Take a look:

Governor Inslee’s handpicked 21-member Carbon Emission Reduction Taskforce

  • Rodney Brown, Environmental Lawyer ($1800 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Ada Healey, Real Estate, ($500 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Dow Constantine, Democrat King County Executive
  • Perry England, Vice President McDonald-Miller, ($2250 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Adam Glickman, SEIU 775, (contributed $340 to Jay Inslee + well over $160,000 in independent expenditures supporting Jay Inslee)
  • KC Golden, Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Solutions, ($1790 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Jay Gordon, Washington Dairy Federation
  • Kimberly Harris, Puget Sound Energy ($1500 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Jeff Johnson, Washington State Labor Council ($1500 direct contributor to Jay Inslee + $900 direct from WSLC + untold thousands )
  • Renee Klein, American Lung Association, ($100 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Dennis McLerran, Environmental Protection Agency ($1,375 contributor to Jay Inslee)
  • Colin Moseley, Green Diamond Resource Company ($3200 contributor to Rob McKenna)
  • Dave Myers, Washington State Building trades Council
  • Mark Reddemann, Energy Northwest ($500 contributor to Jay Inslee & $1000 contributor to Rob McKenna)
  • Fawn Sharp, Quinault Nation
  • Virinder Singh, EDF Renewables
  • Rich Stolz, OneAmerica ($35,000 in Independent Expenditures supporting Jay Inslee)
  • Brad Tilden, Alaska Air Group ($1800 to Jay Insley through Alaska Air & $1500 direct contributor to Rob McKenna)
  • Remy Trupin, Washington State Budget and Policy Center
  • Steve Wright, Chelan County Public Utility District
  • Chris Youngmark, United Steelworkers District 12

What do you think? Fair and Balanced or just an echo chamber for Inslee’s failed (and costly) ideas? 

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