The similarities between Jay Inslee and disgraced former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber are extensive. In fact, as Shift has reported, it is rather difficult to tell the difference between the two. Here are five awful similarities between Inslee and Kitzhaber:
- Both governors had advisors paid-for by California billionaire and “green” hypocrite Tom Steyer to influence their green agendas.
A Steyer-funded organization, the Energy Foundation, is one of the extreme environmental groups behind the Kitzhaber scandal. The group helped foot the bill for Kitzhaber’s fiancé Cylvia Hayes’ $118,000 fellowship and hired her for “communications work” on a contract worth $50,000, all while she served in an official capacity as his environmental advisor.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, one of the organization involved in the Oregon scandal, paid for work done by Jay Manning, an advisor of Inslee, to develop a fuel mandate for Washington State. Manning had a $150,000 contract. The Energy Foundation underwrote the Skamania conferences where Inslee administration officials, green special interest groups and rich donors got together to put together Inslee’s job-killing plans.
- Cylvia Hayes advised both governors on extreme environmental policy issues.
Kitzhaber isn’t the only governor to receive green policy advice from Hayes while she was on contract from extreme environmental organizations to give said advice. Hayes attended four events with Inslee’s team where she advocated for the use of a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), “an alternative to gross domestic product that also takes into account a state’s social and environmental health.” One of those meetings occurred in Inslee’s office. Hayes had a contract to advocate for the GPI during that time. Inslee’s administration now uses both GPI and GDP as measurements of the state’s health.
- Both governors attempted to hide gas-tax schemes from the public.
As Kitzhaber moved forward with his plans to implement a fuel mandate scheme, he attempted to hide a “dirty little secret” from the public. That secret was that his fuel mandate would implement a “new hidden gasoline tax designed to increase the cost of fuel and decrease the bank accounts of everyday motorists and businesses that rely on transportation.” Kitzhaber’s hidden gas-tax scheme was exposed by the Oregonian.
Shift first exposed Inslee’s hidden gas-tax scheme after a public investigation led us to a report issued by his consultants. The report found that his fuel mandate plan would cost over $1 per gallon of gas. Inslee did everything he could think of to debunk our finding, even having his consultants re-do their analysis to suit his agenda. When experts confirmed that his fuel mandate would indeed cost over $1 per gallon of gas, Inslee resorted to denying he had any fuel mandate plan. Of course, that wasn’t true either.
- Both governors signed the Pacific Coast Collaborative climate agreement and subsequently pursued fully implementing fuel mandates by 2015.
As Shift has reported, perhaps the most significant connections between Kitzhaber and Inslee are the two governor’s extreme environmental goals, particularly as established by the Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC) climate agreement. Kitzhaber and Inslee sought to align their green agendas by pursuing fuel mandates for Oregon and Washington. Both Kitzhaber and Inslee began pursuing fuel mandates this year as they promised they would do in 2013.
- Both governors have records of pandering to extreme environmental organizations.
Last year, the Oregonian called out Kitzhaber for his incessant pandering to environmental special interest groups. Specially, Kitzhaber sought to block a company from building a facility at the Port of Morrow that would transfer coal from train cars to barges. The coal was destined for international markets, not to be burned in Oregon. And, the barges would be designed to prevent the release of coal dust. Kitzhaber’s desired end—the killing of the project—would “help neither the environment nor the many Oregonians who could use the employment the project would spur.” But, it would help Kitzhaber satisfy extreme environmental organizations.
Inslee has a similar dislike for job-creating companies that ship coal to international markets from Washing State ports. Inslee claims, “Coal exports from Washington would have an “unparalleled” impact on Puget Sound and Washington waters.” The Washington Policy Center points out that the “maximum amount the coal from Washington would impact Puget Sound would be to lower pH (i.e. increase acidity) by 0.000836.” And, the “change in pH over the next 100 years due to the carbon from coal exported from Washington is 0.083 percent of what can occur daily, naturally, in Willapa Bay.” You can read more here, but the point is our green governor has attempted to disguise his clear pandering to extreme environmental organizations with ridiculous explanations for his opposition.
Keep it up Shift. My support check is in the mail. Inslee, the OB look alike must go.
It’s doubtful that a Corporate-funded, right-wing Republican smear site would need a small donation from you.
A professional trol speaks. Must be a lib. ??
I think it’s time for some serious changes in the way our State spends OUR money! What gives the Govenor the mandate to go off on these extreme tangents when real issues continue to be ignored. Everywhere you look there are cost overruns, fraud, waste, loopholes, good ol’ boy politics, and we the taxpayers can’t drive from Lake City to SeaTac without packing a lunch. Our State charges itself sales tax so it can move money around from where it belongs to other accounts…how stupid is that. The list goes on and on and on.
The irony huh? The good old boy politics that supports just build more highways instead of rail or other reliable people movers being responsible for you being stuck in local traffic.
An urban dweller from sodom or gomorra WA, it must be. Living in a cloud of liberal progressive lies has rotted your young mind. But fear not, the democratic parties social network will pay for your mental ills so the financial burden can be placed on others backs and not yours.
Jay Inslee is a liberal Leftwing-nut democrat who lies about everything to further the green movement. You would think anybody with half a brain would see right through it. But spend a weekend in western Washington and you can see that the masses are just sheepople following this madness blindly like hamsters in their little green cars moving back and forth with no real purpose in life but their own existence under the cartoon world of rainbows. The local propaganda from news outlets and half a century of progressive rule have left nothing more than government control on every aspect of their lives that it is now passed on through generations as the only way to live. The liberal elite are continuing this trend with their wealth to purchase the voice of the people. The Washington State governor is just as much a criminal as Oregons governor, he just hasn’t been caught yet.
Totally agree…so who is looking under the carpet? Where is the Media? Bought and paid for?
Yes, the dreaded “sheepople”, driving around in their cars, willy nilly, creating enough wealth to subsidize the welfare layabouts on the east side of the state. Why, they probably even have jobs! Oh, the horror! When will those evil “sheepople” stop with their horrible industriousness? Why can’t they find some purpose in life? Why can’t they just smoke meth and drive pick up trucks, like real ‘Muricans?
Lost in his cubicle, the voice of the troll reminds us that he is the ruler of all the people in this great state. He lives in his urban eco world of fantasies and believes he provides what is best for all of us with his wisdom and knowledge. Using our money through tax & spend doctrine of the liberal progresive democrat because we are unable to understand the complexities of how to provide for ourselves. Yes he is here to help us all. Give thanks to the Urban Troll.
No, my tax dollars go to support the poor lifestyle choices of lazy, conservative welfare queens on the east side of the state. My county gets back $1.00 for every $1.63 it sends to Olympia. Lazy conservative deficit spenders, such as yourself, squander the largess given you by the hardworking folks you deride ironically as freeloaders.
Why won’t rural conservatives get off their collective duffs, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and find gainful employment so they can stop mooching from all the job creators in King County?
Or at least pretend to be grateful for all the free stuff we buy for you…
You’re funny, wrong, but funny.
Here’s what worfington meant:
According to 2008 budget figures compiled by the state’s Office of Financial Management at the request of Representatives Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle) and Glenn Anderson (R-Fall City), King County, with roughly 29 percent of the state population, produced 42 percent of state tax revenues, yet it received back less than 26 percent of state benefits. That’s a return of only 62 cents on the dollar for our state’s Democratic stronghold.
Compare that to the generous $3.16 return on each dollar enjoyed by taxpayers in hard Republican Ferry County in deep northeastern Washington. All in all, only six counties qualified as “net donors” to the rest of the state—San Juan, King, Skagit, Kittitas, Whatcom, and Snohomish—while the remaining 33 counties enjoyed an average return on investment of over $1.40 on every tax dollar sent to Olympia.
In per-capita dollars, Yakima county was our biggest welfare queen:
King County, home to our state’s largest concentration of urban poor, drew only $538 of DSHS expenditures per capita, ranking it 30th out of 39 counties. Meanwhile, such bastions of self-proclaimed self-sufficiency as rural Adams, Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Okanogan Counties consumed per capita DSHS benefits of over $900, while Yakima County—Washington’s “fruit basket”—topped the charts at $1,129 per person.
But Ferry County received the most welfare for the money it sent to Olympia:
To put this level of dependency in perspective, 83 cents out of every dollar Yakima County sends to Olympia is paid back in DSHS benefits alone. Tiny Ferry County actually receives more in just DSHS benefits—$1.14 on the dollar—than the total tax revenues it pays to the state! Schools, corrections, higher education, everything else… that’s all gravy.
And, let’s not forget Hanford, and federal farm subsidies — other mechanisms for transferring wealth from King County’s high-income earners to the welfare queens of Eastern Washington.
Tax & Spend, what are you bitching about? That’s the way you liberal progresive democrats set you’re system up & now you don’t like it? Just stop taxing & spending, it’s pretty cut & dry. Stop Spending! Cut the Red Ink!
I was merely noting that we liberals in Puget Sound are subsidizing conservatives in Eastern Washington, and if politicians from the latter region reduce the programs providing those subsidies, their own communities might suffer more than anyone in Seattle.
It’s time to move out of your mothers basement.
You would have thought he would have gained some knowledge in the years in the congress.