Last week, ultra-liberal environmental blog (and chief Jay Inslee cheerleader) Sightline ran a story titled, “Governor Inslee’s Executive Carbon Pollution Cap, Explained.” That same day, Alcoa– the world’s third largest producer of aluminum—granted a reminder of the real-world consequences of Inslee’s “green” obsession when the company announced it would close the last two aluminum smelters in the state.
While a myriad of factors went into the company’s decision, Inslee’s creation of an increasingly unfriendly business environment in our state was one of them. As an ALCOA spokesman emailed to reporters, “The decision to restart the operations would include a series of factors, ranging from global market conditions, regulatory certainty, capital investments, energy pricing and alignment with Alcoa’s strategy to create a globally competitive commodity business.”
The key phrase is “regulatory certainty,” something that simply does not exist under Inslee’s administration.
As the Puget Sound Business Journal notes, aluminum was once considered an important industry in our state. Now, it’s an industry that will no longer exist. The Journal,
“The days of aluminum smelting, for years a leading multi-billion-dollar industry for Washington state, are coming to an end.
“On Monday, Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) announced it will idle the smelting lines of its plants in Wenatchee and Ferndale, the last two operating aluminum smelters in the state.
“The cuts will have significant impacts on employment in the regions where the plants are located. The Ferndale plant, for instance employs 583, according to the Bellingham Herald.”
The impact of his own extreme “green” actions was lost on Inslee, who turned to the tried-and-true promises of government-provided social services to try and soften the blow of lost family-wage jobs.
“Today’s news is a tough blow for many hard-working Washingtonians and communities like Ferndale and Wenatchee where Alcoa employs hundreds of men and women,” said Gov. Jay Inslee in a Monday statement. “I’ll be asking my agency directors to ensure we’re doing what we can to assist impacted workers and their families during this difficult time.”
Inslee would do better to re-evaluate his job-killing, purely ideological extreme “green” agenda. Unfortunately, our green governor has no intention of doing that.
