This week we sit down with Jami Lund, who from his experience with the government employee unions believes they are “angry power-brokers with enough money and insulation from consequences to be petty on a grand scale.”  Lund was recently the target of a nearly $100,000 effort by government unions to buy his seat on the Centralia School Board. Lund earned labor’s ire by being active in the Freedom Foundation’s efforts to inform public union members of their rights not to pay dues as the result of the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision. (Shift)  

Governor Jay Inslee continues to purposely use out of date and false data to promote his latest attempt to jam through a low carbon fuel standards (LCFS).  Even though the Governor must know the data from Oregon is out-of-date, he continues to use the figures in promoting his current legislation.  Inslee falsely states that Oregon’s LCFS standard’s “impact has been a penny or less if any. Repeat. It’s marginal.” As has been repeatedly pointed out, current Oregon figures have already doubled and will continue to climb. It is conservatively estimated that within five years the amount will be more than 16 cents per gallon – which has already been exceeded in California’s longer-running experiment.  There are many who predict the amount will be closer to 50 cents per gallon when the program is fully implemented.  (KIRO TV and Washington Policy Center)

Senator Hans Zeiger (R-Puyallup) says that no matter how courts rule on I-976, state leaders should follow the example of former Governor Gary Locke, and the 2000 legislature, and pass legislation the voters clearly desire.  Zeiger believes there are three things the current legislature should do to respect the voters’ strong support for I-976.  1) Reduce car tab fees to $30, 2) reform how Sound Transit operates; and 3) direct current sales tax on cars into transportation funding. (News Tribune)

Loretta Byrnes of Poulsbo writes an interesting column encouraging people to become more involved in the political process.  “Because so few people are involved in the political system, it is easy for both parties to be controlled by small groups of single-issue people and extreme perspectives, (thus) compelling resources and energy to be spent on issues that are of little relevance and importance to the vast majority of voters and taxpayers.” (Kitsap Sun)

Governor Inslee and King County Executive Dow Constantine are being strongly criticized by citizens for their lack of action in assisting those in Sky Valley along Highway 2 who were snowed in for nearly a week.  With the road closed and many residents without electricity or water, residents had to fend for themselves to bring in needed supplies.  Many citizens wondered if the state and county response would have been better if the citizens were liberal voters.  (MyNorthwest)

Microsoft announced that it has set a goal to be “carbon negative” by 2030, by removing more carbon from the environment than its business operations emit.  As opposed to nearly all governments, which nearly always dramatically fail to meet carbon reduction goals (see Washington State and King County), we suspect Microsoft will likely reach its objectives.  Where government goals are more focused on rewarding campaign supporters and promoting political objectives, private enterprise is usually more focused on achieving actual results.  (Geekwire, Seattle Times, and  Seattle Weekly)

The Douglas County PUD Commission will vote in late January on a revised rate increase that targets cryptocurrency miners and data centers.  Previous proposals had larger initial rate increases and began six months earlier.  The new measure provides ratepayers more time to prepare for the rate increases.  The current proposal will also end the moratorium on new contracts with cryptocurrency and data centers which are attracted to the region due to low power rates.  (Wenatchee World)

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has shut down target shooting at the 12,000-acre Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area near Ephrata.  WDFW took the action after stray bullets were found in nearby buildings.  A WDFW spokesperson said, “There are several residences and outbuildings that are well within range of a rifle bullet and hunters and anglers heavily use surrounding areas.” (iFIBER One)

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