The Democrats’ embarrassment with the extreme political decision pushed by Governor Jay Inslee to ban natural gas in much of Western Washington was apparent when they decided to pass it at 2 a.m. when fewer people would be watching. Leave it to an op-ed in the (Tacoma) News Tribune by Republican Senator Chris Gildon to point out the reality of this new law – which includes a sweet payoff to the foreign owners of Puget Sound Energy (PSE) – that “(H)owever the law is described, natural gas is going away.”

Given the massive windfall profit for the company after its consistent campaign support for Gov. Inslee, PSE is complaining about “misinformation” that might upset the backroom deal that its own lawyers drafted. However, the facts are fairly clear, as “the 38-page law requires PSE to submit a plan to the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) by 2027 for combining its gas and electric businesses. PSE’s customers would see increased rates to pay for the additional infrastructure required to expand the current electrical grid while PSE simultaneously discontinues natural gas service.”  You can read on to see how “PSE’s gas customers will face enormous costs to convert to electricity” while getting ready to pay much higher energy prices. … (Tacoma) News Tribune.

Shift has long followed the controversial proposal from some of Governor Inslee’s political donors to build a windmill farm extending the length of Seattle to Tacoma on an undeveloped ridge outside Kennewick. That’s why we picked up the Tri-City Herald story that a “key decision on whether the Tri-Cities area could become home to a large wind project that would dominate its southern views could be made this month after more public comment is received.”

The paper reports that the “Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, is expected to vote April 17 on a recommendation to significantly reduce the number of wind turbines that could be built at the proposed Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center.” Read on to decide whether that recommendation will be enough to stop Gov. Inslee from imposing his will to help his friends build a project featuring “up to 222 wind turbines that would be 500 feet tall or an alternate plan with fewer, taller turbines. Then there would be up to 141 turbines with blades extending about 670 feet high, which is taller than the Seattle Space Needle.” … Tri-City Herald.

Much has been written about the pro-criminal rights bias of the Democrats who control the Washington state legislature, from their banning of police pursuits to retroactively reducing prison sentences, among other mistakes. Their unwillingness to take their ideological blinders off to protect children now has Center Square featuring Republican Representative Travis Couture “speaking out about the murder of a little boy in Everett last week, a tragedy he calls preventable.”

The high-profile death of Ariel Garcia, allegedly at the hands of his mother, put a spotlight on “legislation he introduced this past session (which) would put measures in place to protect vulnerable children from drug addicted parents.” Unfortunately, as Rep. Couture points out, legislative Democrats were “so dogmatic about this, saying drug abuse is just a personal health issue” that they refused to even hear his bill HB 2233. You can read on to see if you agree with him that the “system will never be perfect, but we can do a hell of a lot better than what we’re doing right now.” … Center Square.

Shift has consistently pointed out how the Washington state budget has doubled during Gov. Inslee’s time signing those budgets, so the Democrats have plenty of taxpayer money to devote to their priorities. Yet the state keeps pleading poverty when it comes to funding for mandates it places on other governments, with Spokane Public Radio highlighting an upcoming financial crisis as “Washington’s county-level governments are still seeking a way to get the state to pay more to support public defense” of criminal suspects.

The state recently won on a technicality to keep its payments low, but “Judge Allyson Zipp agreed with the lawsuit’s premise that public defense in Washington faces serious challenges.” You can read on to see how, thanks to state underfunding “on average, county governments paid for 97 percent of public defense costs” and that is unsustainable. … Spokane Public Radio.

Shift has devoted plenty of space to the wasteful agency that is the King County Regional Homeless Authority (RHA), and how it feeds many existing mouths in the homelessness industrial complex while doing relatively little to actually help the homeless. Now even the Seattle Times is editorializing that “five years after its inception, no one seems to have a good grasp on what the RHA should do and how it should do it.”

The paper doesn’t call for the outright closing of the RHA, but “when the RHA is part of the problem instead of the solution, it’s time to do some serious thinking about” that prospect. Read on to learn that no one seems willing to come to the rescue, as the troubled agency “is still without a leader since Marc Dones left in May 2023. A final slate of candidates was planned to be presented in March. That didn’t happen.” … Shift, Seattle Times.

Shift will send you off into your weekend with an example of a story so obvious that you’re surprised anyone would feel the need to write it.  Yet we have the (Tacoma) News Tribune providing us the amazing insight that, when it comes to road quality,  “Washington didn’t rank nearly as high” as neighboring states, and actually “fell in the bottom ten states.”

This “news” came from a “study out of Munley Law (which) used data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics to determine which states have the best road quality, or the smoothest drive.” Read on to see how the “percentage of acceptable miles in the state was in the 80s and 90s through the 2000s, but has fallen to the 69-71% range since the 2010s.” Thanks, Democrats, for making roads such a priority. … (Tacoma) News Tribune.

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