Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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If Washington state elected officials and energy planners need to be reminded of the risks of increasing reliance on wind-generated electricity, they can look to the week-and-a-half after Thanksgiving. Starting on the night before Thanksgiving, the amount of electricity generated by wind power in the BPA system across the northwest collapsed, falling to zero megawatts around midnight. Generation remained extremely low until midday on Dec. 7, more than nine days later. During t...
The cost of a gallon of fuel may increase by 45 cents per gallon in the wake of the I-2117 failure. The CO2 tax already jumped; it is set at auctions and on private markets when organizations covered by the law purchase allowances covering their emissions. Immediately after voters decided to keep Washington’s tax on CO2 emissions, allowance prices on the private market jumped by more than 10% to about $57 per metric ton of CO2, according to the Carbon dashboard of W...
Scientific experts are prone to bias, overestimate their certainty and government systems are not good at adjusting to new science. Those admonitions come from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a statement addressing the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case of Charles C. McCrory v. Alabama. In the piece, Sotomayor asks what courts should do when faced with convictions “resting on science that has now been wholly discredited?” The question offer lessons for how g...
Gov. Jay Inslee wants to buy 8,767 people a $1,125 latte. Metaphorically, at least. Inslee’s new program to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles is so wasteful at reducing CO2 emissions, it is the equivalent of paying that absurd amount for a 16-ounce latte. On Earth Day, Inslee announced a $45 million program to subsidize the purchase or lease of electric vehicles. The program is targeted at those making 300% of the federal poverty level or less, which amounts to $...
As Washington’s CO2 tax, known as the Climate Commitment Act, heads to the ballot this fall, this logo highlighting projects that received funding from that tax will become more prevalent. And you are paying for it. The use of taxpayer-resources to promote the CO2 tax follows the decision by the Legislature to send one-time checks of $200 to utility customers funded by the Climate Commitment Act just two-months before the November election. It is part of a pattern we are l...
The legislative session is over, and it had the potential to be very positive for salmon recovery. There was bipartisan support for habitat restoration. Legislators also had a huge amount of money to allocate because the tax on CO2 emissions generated far more money than anticipated. Despite that, the Legislature failed to make significant progress on salmon. It is one more wasted opportunity to protect an iconic state species. The most glaring example of the failure is in...
Washington’s State Building Code Council has once again adopted rules designed to eliminate natural gas energy for new residential and commercial construction. The original proposal was modified when a similar regulation adopted by the city of Berkeley, Calif., was overturned by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Like the previous version, the new rules were pushed through the process without providing adequate information about the costs of the new regulations. For exam...
As the cost of the state’s climate law continues to increase gas prices, members of the Inslee Administration are upset when the cost of the CO2 allowances are referred to as a “tax.” The governor and others have resorted to convoluted language and logic to avoid using that politically powerful word. For example, the governor’s spokesman Mike Faulk recently wrote, “the cap and invest program is not a ‘carbon tax’,” but “requires emitters to purchase … permits for their e...
The state held its special auction for CO2 allowances two weeks ago. When the results were announced, they indicated higher gas prices may be coming. As part of the state’s new tax on CO2 emissions, known as the Climate Commitment Act, organizations that emit CO2, like BP or Washington State University, must purchase permits for every metric ton of CO2 emitted by their operations or products. There are a limited number of permits available. So, the price is set at an a...
By virtually all key metrics, Washington’s environmental policies are failing. And yet, when was the last time politicians, environmental activists or the media expressed concern about policy failures? Speeches and news stories are filled with demands that we save the planet, describing threats to salmon, orca, forests and the climate. And yet, there is a remarkable lack of curiosity when real-world efforts fail to address those problems. One common thread is that e...
Relying on increased wind and solar is likely to increase electricity costs for residents in Washington and Idaho, and make electricity less reliable. Advocates of wind and solar frequently point to is the claim that the fuel is “free.” That claim ignores the extremely high up-front cost of those energy sources. To account for that, energy analysts create a “levelized cost of energy” to compare between energy that has low costs up-front but has ongoing costs for the fuel ...
On Earth Day this year, I will be planting two trees in a local park. This is not a political act. And yet, there are many who will see it that way because it occurs on a day politicians and environmental activists – especially on the left – have appropriated for political purposes. By filtering environmental stewardship though the distorting lens of politics, we are losing the ability to enjoy the beautiful creation around us, making it more difficult to take actions tha...
Next year, one of the state’s newly adopted climate policies, the low-carbon fuel standard, will take effect in our state. The legislation requires companies to blend biofuels or fund charging stations for electric vehicles. Although it has increased gas prices in California and Oregon, the governor and environmental activists claim it would cost Washington drivers nothing, while the prime sponsor testified it would cost no more than 2 cents per gallon. “Don’t let anyon...
For the people living in the Lewis-Clark Valley on the Snake River, Gov. Jay Inslee’s report on destroying four dams tries to offer some solace. After a “thorough review of relevant economic reports and conversations with experts,” the report’s authors have some ideas about how to offset the serious harm that would be done to the community. Reading the vague assurances from the report reminded me of another community hit by the harmful economic impacts of environ...
Contrary to recent claims that Snake River Spring Chinook runs are on the path to extinction, returns increased for the second year in a row, continuing the recovery from the recent low point in the population cycle. The Spring Chinook salmon run for the Snake River concluded yesterday, with more than 29,634 salmon passing the Lower Granite Dam. This is a 27 percent increase from 2020 levels and 55 percent larger than 2019 returns. That number is also only 495 Chinook short...
The poor are oppressed by the incompetent. It is a phrase that increasingly rings in my ears as I watch government bureaucracies and politicians provide false hope instead of tangible assistance. The people who pay for these failures are often those who can least afford it. The examples in my home state of Washington are numerous, but are not unique. My friend Kim Ngan came to the United States from Vietnam, and although she didn’t speak much English, she knew there was o...