Last month, Jay Inslee announced his intention to pursue his extreme “green” agenda by bypassing the state Legislature and imposing a new carbon rule via a cap on carbon emissions. Inslee directed the state Department of Ecology (DOE) to begin developing new carbon reduction regulatory rules that he thinks he can impose on the state using his executive authority.
Due to a letter our green governor sent to the director of the DOE, we now know what Inslee intends to impose on our state with his executive powers. Inslee wrote offering the DOE “some guidance” and his “expectations about how this program needs to work.” The Everett Herald,
“Inslee doesn’t specify what industries he wants covered by the rule but he does note greenhouse gas emissions in Washington are generated mostly from energy production and use, manufacturing, and transportation. The latter he says is the largest contributor.
“‘I ask that you carefully assess what sectors and facilities should be covered by the rule in order to regulate the state’s largest contributors of carbon pollution to achieve the greatest emission reductions in an efficient and effective manner,’ he wrote to director Maia Bellon…
“Of critical importance to him is the cap must decline over time in order to help the state meet reduction targets set by the Legislature in 2007.
“He also expressed his desire to see a draft rule out in January and adoption next summer.”
Inslee’s timeline is aggressive—to say the least. As the Herald points out, the state “spent nearly three years drafting and debating new water quality rules tied to the amount fish people consume before Inslee decided last month to not enact the changes.”
Inslee’s timeline is bound to meet some resistance from the DOE. As Shift reported, Stu Clark, the air quality program manager for the Department of Ecology, estimated that a complex rule like a cap on carbon emissions would take 18 months to 24 months form. That’s because there is no precedence for the type of regulatory feat Inslee is seeking to impose.
It appears that Inslee is more concerned with his legacy as our nation’s greenest governor than with getting even his extreme “green” agenda right.
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