Seattle City Council members seem to come up with more than their share of whacky ideas. From changing the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day to sticking their nose in foreign affairs issues, there seems to be no end to the strange ideas council members consider priorities. Their latest aim appears to be an attempt to shame Seattle drivers at the gas pump. The Seattle Times,
“Seattle drivers might soon see reminders that they’re harming the environment each time they gas up their cars.
“The city — following the lead of San Francisco and Berkeley — is considering requiring stickers on gas pumps telling drivers that burning fuel contributes to climate change.”
Most rational people would not consider it a good public policy approach to be “following the lead of San Francisco and Berkeley” on anything. However, that list of the rational does not include Seattle Councilman Mike O’Brien. O’Brien says he was inspired to draft this particular proposal after “student activists with Plant for the Planet, an international children’s initiative to raise awareness about climate change, talked about it during a January visit to City Hall.”
O’Brien has suggested that, before the city starts regulating businesses, they should consider first talking to businesses to see if they would put the labels on voluntarily. That idea was met with opposition by socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant who pointed out that “we’re talking about the oil lobby here.”
Proponents of the stickers compare them to health warnings on packs of cigarettes. The Western States Petroleum Association argued against such an ordinance in Berkley, pointing out that it would be “unconstitutional because it would force gas stations to advance certain political opinions.”
Of course, the Seattle City Council members have never quite cared how their policies impact businesses… or how they might violate the law.
Notably, Shift and our readers took it upon us, to put stickers on gas pumps in order to warn against Inslee’s far-left green agenda. We didn’t need the government to mandate its version of political correctness
