Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Just in case you forgot to wear green, we’ve got you covered with the top five “green” moments of the 2015 legislative session (so far) brought to you courtesy of Democrat lawmakers and their extreme green backers.
- Democrat Sen. Pramila Jayapal claiming that the bi-partisan transportation package “imperils the health of Washington state residents.”
Jayapal bases her extreme claim on the assumption that a fuel mandate would “make a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and air pollution,” which in turn improves overall health. As the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers points out, a fuel mandate isn’t all that effective. By the state’s own estimations, a fuel mandate would “make no meaningful difference in air pollution or human health.”
- Democrats and their far-left supporters calling the bi-partisan transportation package a “poison pill” due to its safeguard against Jay Inslee imposing a fuel mandate by executive order.
As Shift reported, perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the far-left’s vendetta against the state Senate’s bi-partisan transportation package is their insistence that no ground is given—Democrats will not accept the reality of compromise – it’s their way or the highway (pun intended). The state Senate is controlled by Republicans and the state House by Democrats, so passing a needed transportation package will require a bi-partisan effort, as has been the case in all past transportation packages. That means compromise, which means no side will walk away completely happy.
- Democrat Rep. Ross Hunter, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, attempting to defend Jay Inslee’s very expensive cap-and-tax scheme by referencing a study that proves exactly what he said it didn’t … that consumers will end up paying the cost of Inslee’s tax increase, not so-called “big polluters”.
According to the study Hunter cites, “consumers will bear the full burden of a state tax.” The Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers explains that the study compares gas taxes imposed at the state and at the federal level. At the federal level, gas suppliers can’t avoid the tax by going to another state. So, they assume part of the cost to avoid losing customers. However, when the tax is state-based, suppliers can move some of their supply to other states with lower taxes. As a result, they pass along the full cost to in-state consumers or move supply to other states.
- Jay Inslee passing on the opportunity to testify on his cap-and-tax scheme before the House Environment Committee’s hearing on the bill. Essentially, Inslee would not himself defend what he called a “moral obligation” when it, arguably, counted most – a true profile in courage from the green Guv.
As Shift reported, it’s unclear why Inslee refrained from appearing before the committee—it is not as if he would have faced a room full of hostile lawmakers. Democrat Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, sponsor of the cap-and-tax bill, kicked off the hearing by eagerly listing all of Inslee’s favorite talking points. What is clear? There is a general lack of enthusiasm concerning Inslee’s cap-and-tax scheme… and not just from Republican lawmakers.
- K.C. Golden—Senior Policy Advisor at Climate Solutions, member of Inslee’s carbon taskforce, and new board chair of 350.org(a global warming propaganda group)—suggesting that the state enforce a cap-and-tax scheme by implementing a “cap-and-jail” scheme instead.
Forced to face a rather inconvenient fact that emission reductions targets demanded by cap-and-tax schemes are not politically enforceable, Golden snapped, “How about cap-and-jail?” As the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers pointed out, Golden’s response should come as no surprise—because whether in jest or not, it is typical of people on the environmental left. Liberals, rather than fix the flaws in their policies, all too often “simply increase the force they impose on people who disagree. If the policy isn’t working, rather than address the problems, they just apply more force. Then they wonder why there is no bipartisan support for their policies.”
Leave a Reply