Alcoa recently announced its intention to close factories in Ferndale and Wenatchee, resulting in thousands of lost jobs, in large part due to the impending threat of Jay Inslee’s extreme “green” carbon rules. In a recent blog post, the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers grants new insight into why the aluminum company chose to close down the last of its plants in our state. Myers writes,
“So, what would the Governor’s new regulation cost Alcoa?
“The proposed regulation is designed to meet the carbon dioxide emissions targets set out in RCW 70.235, achieving 1990 emissions levels by 2020. Based on 2013 data, that would require a reduction of about 10 percent. Since the regulation covers only about 60 percent of the state’s emissions, companies like Alcoa would have to actually reduce their emissions by 16 percent to make up for those who are not regulated.
“To meet those targets, Alcoa will have to pay to reduce emissions. In California, carbon permits cost about $13 per ton, annually. Above that price, emitters would simply reduce their own emissions rather than buying a permit.”
Based on those calculations, Alcoa would face additional costs of $650,000/year for its Wenatchee plant and $2,278,000/year for its Ferndale plant. But, that’s not the whole story.
As Myers points out, Alcoa’s costs would only increase as regulations become stricter after 2020 when experts predict prices in California will increase to 30 per ton. Based on that projection, Alcoa is looking at additional annual costs of $1.5 million in Wenatchee and $5.25 million in Ferndale.
Making matters worse, extreme “green” organizations like Sightline have indicted that they are not satisfied with Inslee’s plan. They pushing for more restrictive regulations and a higher increase in costs. Their insistence begs the question, how long until our green governor acquiesces to their demands?
Notably, as Democrats continue to drive jobs out of our state, they are also pretending they care about labor’s concern over the decline of manufacturing jobs for the middle class. Though they would never publically admit it, there is one issue Democrats will prioritize over big labor: their job-killing extreme “green” agenda.
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