Democrat State Sen. Joe Nguyen recently expressed his commitment to pass a California-style law next year. The law, passed by California in 2022, takes aim at high gas prices not by eliminating costly regulations or, say, the carbon tax, but by addressing so-called price gouging by oil companies. The law mandates daily market reports to detect price manipulation and establishes – surprise, surprise – yet another taxpayer-funded bureaucratic agency to oversee the industry: the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight.

Nguyen attempted to pass a Washington version of the law this year – and plans to push his bill again during the 2025 legislative session. Under Nguyen’s proposal, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission would be required to collect and analyze detailed pricing, profit margin, and transaction data from fuel suppliers and refinery operators. The findings would then be reported to the governor, Legislature, and public.

Like many Democrats, Nguyen largely blames the oil industry for high gas prices. He has criticized Chevron for everything from high profits to stock buybacks. Of course, in his quest to cast blame, Nguyen fails to mention the impact of our state’s carbon tax – which he supports.

The reality is that our state boasts some of our nation’s highest gas prices because of Inslee and Democrats’ cap-and-tax scheme. Their cap-and-tax scheme led to a steep rise of 50 cents per gallon in fuel prices within our state. For the average Washington household, this translates to an additional expenditure of approximately $500 annually. Shockingly, the program’s actual cost to consumers is three times greater than Democrats initially projected.

So, contrary to what Democrats like Nguyen would like the public to believe, the inflated fuel prices in our state are not the result of the oil industry but rather are due to their failed policies. Read more at The Center Square.

Yet again, there is more drama coming out of the failing King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Interim CEO Darrell Powell was fired on Monday, shortly after it was announced that Kelly Kinnison would become the new CEO.

According to the Seattle Times, the Implementation Board Executive Committee made the decision to terminate Powell after the Governing Committee granted it the authority to determine his end date.

Apparently, Powell did not see his firing coming. He told the Times, “It was humiliating… My disappointment is that the mayor knew about this and didn’t let me know.” Making the sting that much worse, Powell considered Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell a friend since their days at Garfield High School.

Implementation Board co-chair Ben Maritz stated that the decision was unrelated to Powell’s performance. Kinnison is scheduled to start her permanent role as CEO on August 1 with a taxpayer funded salary of $290,000. So, King County residents can look forward to their hard-earned taxpayer dollars funding even more failed projects that, somehow, only seem to make the homelessness problem worse. Read more at the Seattle Times.

DoorDash has signaled it would eliminate its $4.99 fee if the Seattle City Council reverses course on their failed gig worker minimum wage law. Since January, Seattle’s so-called “PayUp” law set a $26.40 per hour minimum wage for app-based delivery drivers, excluding tips. In response, companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats imposed a $4.99 fee, leading to higher online order costs. In turn – as any reasonable thinker could have predicted – the fee resulted in fewer orders, causing drivers to earn less and negatively impacting restaurants’ revenue.

In fact, DoorDash data shows Seattle merchants earned $14 million less and there were 590,000 fewer orders between February and May 2024. Realizing the consequences of their actions, the Seattle City Council is now considering adjusting the minimum wage to $19.97 per hour plus 35 cents per mile for driving time, excluding tips. The council is set to vote on the change on June 11. Read more at The Center Square.

Democrats’ terrible law prohibiting police from pursuing suspected criminals was officially rolled back yesterday. As Shift WA previously reported, the Washington State Patrol reported nearly 8,000 incidents of drivers refusing to stop for troopers after the 2021 law went into effect. Local police agencies reported similar results. The numbers leave us wondering – how many car accidents and crimes could have been prevented if not for Democrats’ law? We’ll never know, but we do know our communities are now little safer thanks to citizens pressuring Democrats to cooperate with Republicans and repeal their failed policy via an initiative. For those interested, KOMO 4 is running a poll asking readers whether they agree with rolling back the police restrictions. You can take the poll here.

A win for Washingtonians across our state…

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