The most frustrating aspect of many extreme “green” schemes is the reality they do not actually work. Time and time again, liberals push “green” regulations that do not put a dent in carbon emissions but do cost working families hard-earned tax dollars. Worse, these extreme regulations can even do the reverse of what they were intended… all at the expense of taxpayers.
But, despite the lackluster results, liberals continue to push these extreme policies. By doing so, they reveal their true motivation. For far too many liberals, it’s not actually about implementing policies or seeking innovations that that benefit the environment. It’s about imposing an extreme ideology at all costs.
So, we decided to put together a list of three extreme “green” policies liberals push in Washington State despite their proven failure. Without further ado:
- The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “green” standards for buildings.
LEED standards promise to deliver energy saving and various environmental benefits. But, where imposed, that hasn’t happened. Ironically enough, buildings that follow LEED regulations actually perform worse when it comes to energy standards. Adding insult to injury, imposing these standards is very costly, especially considering their stunning failures.
Unfortunately, the facts have not prevented the Spokane City Council from seriously considering adopting a resolution mandating the regulations for new public buildings.
- Bike-share schemes, particularly Pronto.
Pronto, a bike-share company, failed. That fact would not have been a big deal in and of itself had not the city of Seattle decided to use taxpayer dollars to purchase and expand the failed company. The city will spend $1.4 million for the initial buyout, and then another $5 million more in 2017. From then, the city will spend about $2 million each year.
It’s been said that Seattle based the decision to purchase on “obvious eco-progressive credibility reasons” — how can a “green” city like Seattle not have a bike-share scheme? The problem is, it doesn’t work in Seattle. And, it may even harm more than help the environment.
You see, in the rare event that someone actually uses one of the heavy bikes, they use it to go downhill. Thus, as was one of the well-documented problems the company ran into, all the bikes tend to end up at one of the stations at the bottom of Seattle’s many hills. The only solution was to pay someone to drive the bikes back up the hills in a truck. Knowing this, Seattle still purchased the company — talk about “eco-progressive creditability.”
- Initiative 732, the so-called “revenue neutral” carbon tax.
If liberals get their way, Washington State will become the first in the nation to impose a carbon tax. Our state would become the liberals’ guinea pig.
Liberals are pushing the carbon tax by pointing to the “success” of carbon tax schemes implemented in other parts of the world and arguing that the same could occur in our state. The problem is that their claims are baseless.
As Shift has reported, the carbon tax has not led to success in British Columbia when the bigger picture, i.e. the full economic context, is considered. And, in Australia, the promise to repeal the much-loathed carbon tax is one of the factors that helped usher in victory for the Conservative Party in 2014.
I-732 is an experiment — but it’s not an entirely new experiment. And, based on past results, it’s not one our state should be apart of.
You forgot the forced compact fluorescent lights, which leak mercury into the environment, and also the plastic bag ban, which has led to much destruction and wasted energy from massive use of paper bags.
The extremist left know what they are doing look at the bright light in my left hand