Last month, the state Department of Ecology (DOE) to began developing new carbon reduction regulatory rules that Jay Inslee thinks he can impose on the state using his executive authority. Inslee has outlined an aggressive timeline for the DOE to draft the new rule, revealing he is more concerned with his legacy as our nation’s greenest governor than with getting even his extreme “green” agenda right.
Inslee’s special interest donors on the Left are more than willing to prop up our green governor’s legacy by championing the idea of his new carbon cap rules—while also pushing a carbon scheme of their own. An email via our state’s branch of the Nature Conservancy—a national environmental group—reads,
“Over the last month, there have been several major developments: China announced it will reduce its carbon emissions starting in 2017, Governor Inslee has begun a rulemaking process to cap carbon emissions in Washington State, and the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy has announced their intent to file an initiative for a cap and trade measure.”
Extreme “green” group to push initiative in 2016
The email goes on to state that achieving carbon regulations in Washington State relies on, among other factors, placing a “price on carbon.”
Last week, Washingtonians gained insight into what that price on carbon might look like when the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy—a coalition of extreme “green” groups—announced its plan push an initiative in 2016. The details have yet to be released. However, a press release from the alliance claims the initiative’s focus would be to hit our economy by charging businesses enviros don’t like “a fee for each ton of carbon pollution they emit.”
In other words, the initiative would make Inslee’s new carbon rules that much more harmful. That means more damage to our state’s economy while, of course, benefitting special interests groups—which is the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy’s primary objective.
How do we know? By the alliance’s negative reaction to another carbon initiative on the ballot.
Extreme greenies oppose competing initiative
A relatively new group called Carbon Washington is collecting signatures for Initiative 732, a plan to place a “tax on carbon burned in gasoline, natural gas and other fossil fuels — while cutting other taxes by an equal amount.” The group’s stated goal is to “cut greenhouse-gas emissions and encourage development of cleaner alternatives.” Backers have until the end of the year to qualify the initiative to be placed before the state Legislature in 2016.
That’s a goal you would assume Inslee and extreme “green” groups would get behind. But, you’d be wrong. Very wrong.
The Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy pulled out all the stops in an attempt to discredit I-732. They circulated poll results that suggest I-732 would be rejected by voters. And, they argued the initiative is racist.
Inslee and extreme “green” groups oppose I-732 because, in the end, reducing carbon emissions isn’t really their primary goal. I-732 is a “revenue-neutral” plan, meaning it would not fill state government coffers with more money.
Instead, I-732 proposes to “raise an estimated $1.7 billion a year — and cost the average family an estimated $300 a year in higher gas and energy prices.” It would then pump that money “back to consumers, mostly through a full percentage point cut in the state sales tax.”
Competing initiative exposes extreme greenies true objective
Essentially, I-732 would not allow Inslee to game the system to benefit his campaign donors. That infuriates the extreme green alliance. They prefer Inslee’s cap-and-tax scheme that would raises taxes and use the revenue to benefit “green” donors and their various causes.
Whatever you might think of I-732—whether you support it or not—the extreme green alliance’s rejection of it and its new, competing initiative reveals Inslee and his extreme allies astounding hypocrisy and their true objectives.
