Two things seem certain about Governor Jay Inslee’s expensive state’s cap-and-tax law, which Democrats jammed through the COVID-lockdown legislative session in 2021. The first is that the carbon tax law is complex. The second is that Governor Inslee (and the partisan special interests which benefit financially from the future decisions being made by Inslee) will use that complexity to try and avoid responsibility for the higher gas prices which the law is intended to cause (as Shift has highlighted). But cracks are appearing in that second certainty, as even the Seattle Times is now highlighting an academic expert pointing out the problem of the Democrats’ position: “The idea is, yes, we want to try to cap emissions, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for customers in one state to pay outrageously more than anyone else to reduce the carbon emissions of just that one state.”

It’s sad to read how the Inslee administration is congratulating itself – “Successful auction of cost-containment allowances held” – for recently conducting an emergency scheme triggered after the Department of Ecology so badly managing the program’s launch that it blew through price caps it set (something California has never done in 10 years of administering the nation’s other cap-and-tax law).  You can read how one of the early cheerleaders of the law (and the state’s largest utility) Puget Sound Energy tells the Times that now “PSE ‘is concerned about the high costs of Washington’s cap-and-invest program’ with cost-control mechanisms ‘triggered so early in the program’ ” here… Shift, Seattle Times.

Buried deep in one of the puff pieces the traditional media generated to celebrate the arrival of Vice President Kamala Harris in the state was a quote from an environmental activist that should make every Washington taxpayer – or at least every government accountability watch dog, if any of those still exist – shudder. Here it is, from the Seattle Times: “We’re advocating at the state level especially. How can we simplify these processes to get the money out the door quicker and faster?”

The special interests were in town with the Vice President and Washington state Democrats “advocating” for getting “quicker and faster” at the $375 billion which the federal government has dedicated to driving up inflation under President Joe Biden. But given the well-documented (by Shift, at least) inability of the Inslee administration to administer funds without giving them to fraudsters, you can read further perhaps that’s not such a good idea here… Seattle Times, Shift.

It’s certainly to be expected that politicians will try to puff up their own accomplishments, and minimize their errors. However, the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) is stepping into delusional territory, as the Washington Policy Center highlights, pointing to Chris Reykdal’s latest  “piece on the OSPI website reporting students are ‘not behind’ but ‘gained a lot’ from the COVID-19 school shutdowns.”

Unfortunately for SPI fans, the WPC provides the “hard reality facing Washington’s COVID-hurt students. State test scores show they are seriously behind; in the spring of 2022, 62 percent failed the state math test and 49 percent failed the state English test. Economists predict this COVID-harmed generation of students will have fewer education and career opportunities, and earn significantly less income.” If you want, more sad spin from the SPI is exposed here… Washington Policy Center.

Sound Transit’s failure dominance makes it hard to keep up with all the failures of transit agencies in the Puget Sound area, but for those keeping score at home, here is the latest from the (Tacoma) News Tribune on how “Pierce Transit has hit the pause button on its ambitious Bus Rapid Transit project and will instead bring what it calls an enhanced bus service to the Pacific Avenue/state Route 7 corridor.”

You can read more about how combining the lack of expertise of a transit agency with the lack of accountability of the state’s Department of Transportation and the general inefficiency of other governments meant they “didn’t always see eye-to-eye on overlapping facets of the project. Business and home owners who stood to lose property and access along the route, sent planners back to the drawing board” here… News Tribune.

Because Shift knows that extreme environmentalists will never miss an opportunity to mislead the public on the true impacts of ripping out the four lower Snake River Dams, we present for you to share this latest from the Capital Press that the “livelihoods of thousands of farmers would be put at risk if the four lower Snake River dams are breached, a new study says.”

The facts are pretty hard for even a Democrat to ignore, as “7,644 farms in the affected area generate approximately $2 billion in annual sales, according to the report. If the dams were removed, barging wheat to downstream ports for export would be impossible. Using trucks or railroads would significantly drive up the cost of transportation.” And increase greenhouse gas emissions, for those who claim to care about such things. Since “federal mediation in the long-running litigation tied to the dams is slated to end Aug. 31” you’ll be able to see for yourself if this study has an impact here… Capital Press.

Shift led yesterday with the timely op-ed in the Times from the Association of Washington Business, in which the state chamber of commerce’s Government Affairs Director for Energy Peter Godlewski nailed Governor Jay Inslee’s expensive and wasteful energy policies (the CCA) to the wall for all to see, and pointed out the truth which Inslee, his bureaucrats and Democrat legislators who voted for his cap-and-tax law still refuse to admit in public – “Going green is expensive.”

And in case you missed it, or want to share with others, here are a few other lines from the op-ed that Gov. Inslee wishes you did not know:

“It’s simple economics: Raise prices on commodities upstream, and those increases get passed along the supply chain.”

“The CCA is doing exactly what it was designed to do: raise the price of gasoline.”

“The idea that oil companies would pass on their compliance costs was baked into the pricing assumption.”

“Environmental advocates have been arguing for years that these costs are worth it to help limit global temperature increases.”

“Politicians tried to have it both ways by attempting to tell us we could decarbonize the economy for ‘pennies on the dollar’.”

You can re-read the whole thing or just wait to see if the Democrats pursue his final advice here: “Let’s set aside the blame game and focus on fine-tuning and fixing the problem.”… Seattle Times

In this week’s special Newsmaker Interview, Jon DeVaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association (WAFTA), discussed his background in the tree fruit industry and its impact on Washington’s economy. He entered the industry in 2009 after various agricultural policy roles. DeVaney highlighted the challenges caused by the Democrats’ overtime wage law, resulting in reduced income for farmers and workers and causing some produce to go to waste. He criticized Governor Jay Inslee’s rushed implementation of a “carbon tax,” which lacked promised agriculture exemptions, negatively affecting many farmers. DeVaney also discussed issues like foreign trade updates, loss of farmland to solar/wind farms, and frustration with uninformed Puget Sound lawmakers imposing strict agricultural regulations. Read more on Shift.

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