Carbon is Inslee Enemy #1, but He Won’t Consider Hydro or Nuclear

President Barack Obama recently announced a carbon-cutting plan for the nation, requiring states to lower their carbon output from power plants by differing percentages. Washington, with the vast majority of its power generated by carbon-free hydroelectric and nuclear sources, will be required to lower its carbon amount by 72%.

Many are wary of these federal mandates, knowing that low-cost power is one of Washington’s top competitive advantages in the national economy. The Inslee administration though, packed as it is with true enviro believers, thinks the new rules are great.

Stu Clark from Inslee’s Dept. of Ecology said of the changes, “We’ll have to make some choices. We have to be cleaner than we are today, but I can’t tell you how big or small that will be from our electricity sector.” From the AP:

Clark noted that the state has programs in place that could help it reduce carbon pollution, including a voter-approved law that requires the state’s largest utilities to get more electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources.

What you won’t hear out of the Inslee administration: any credit to hydroelectric dams for the fact that Washington’s power generation is already very low carbon-intensive. Dams are anathema to Inslee and his most ardent environmentalist supporters. They hate carbon, but they hate dams too. What is an administration to do?

Of course, future power could come from carbon-free nuclear generators, too, but there again, environmentalists despise nuclear power, even though the Columbia Generating Station has been operating safely and cleanly outside Richland for 30 years.

No, for Inslee and the radical environmentalists who support him, they’ll just cross their fingers that wind and solar sources will overcome huge hurdles in a short amount of time to deal with what they claim is an urgent carbon emergency. Increasing generation today from technologies that are already carbon-free? Not on their radical agenda.