Gov. Inslee Wants to Reduce Carbon Emissions — Except Those From Boeing Airplanes

In what we think is an insightful, if not brilliant, assessment of Gov. Inslee's inconsistencies on environmental policy, the political blog Sound Politics has taken the governor to task on his carbon tax idea.

Jim Miller wrote this last week about how on one hand Gov. Inslee moved heaven and earth to get the Boeing 777x project to stay in Everett. He deserves a solid thumbs-up for that effort. Losing it would have meant around 10,000 jobs lost.

But Miller also points out that Inslee is big on the idea of cap-and-trade -- or carbon taxes that would essentially "fine" business for releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

Miller astutely points out that jets, air travel, and BIG airplanes produce a lot of carbon. Miller says pushing for aircraft building and a carbon tax is paradoxical.

If Inslee is a purist when it comes to the environment, Miller thinks he would be discouraging air travel. Or, like the Green Party candidate who ran for governor,  he would propose Boeing switch from making airplanes to "green automobiles" and the like.

Miller had this to say:

The best explanation that I have been able to come up with is that Governor Inslee believes that there are two kinds of carbon dioxide, good and bad.  Good carbon dioxide comes from Boeing jets (and rail transit); bad carbon dioxide comes from private cars (and electricity generated to power incandescent light bulbs).  The good carbon dioxide fertilizes plants and, if anything, improves the world's climate; the bad carbon dioxide threatens to cook us all."