West Side Newspapers Condemn Gov. Inslee’s Environmental Policies

A scathing editorial takes Gov. Inslee to task over job performance.

Following the announcement of new environmental hurdles for several large development projects in our state, the Longview Daily News has issued the most brutal assessment so far of Inslee's performance as governor.

The Department of Ecology this week announced two coal transfer terminals proposed for Bellingham and Longview will face additional tests before permits are granted. These export terminals could results in hundreds of jobs in two counties where economic growth are desperately needed. From The Daily News online version of the Longview Herald:

Even though he’s only seven months into a four-year term, some of us have already seen enough of Jay Inslee as governor of Washington."

After laying out his inexperience and shortcomings, the Herald proceeded to let him really have it:

This year’s Legislative Session exposed Inslee’s inexperience and inadequacies. In the few instances when he attempted to provide leadership — the transportation bill, for example — he often over-reached and came away empty-handed. When the Legislature finally adjourned after two extra sessions, both Democrats and Republicans took pains to point out that Inslee had very little to do with the final compromises.

We got another taste of Inslee in Action last week when the state’s Department of Ecology announced that operators seeking to build a coal export terminal in Bellingham would face a permitting process so demanding that it makes us wonder if the state has any intention of ever granting another shoreline permit to anyone. Not only will Ecology evaluate what’s going on at the terminal, but factors such as dust coming off rail cars (beginning at the mines in Montana and Wyoming) and the impact on the global atmosphere when the coal is eventually burned in Asia.

We’ve never seen anything like it."

Wow! The Herald goes on to say the Bellingham criteria will likely be applied to a similar project proposed for Longview, which is in economically-depressed Cowlitz County. They also say these DOE standards could be applied to grain terminals, or to any other business who deals in bulk commodities who might be looking to set up shop in Washington state.  Inslee has publicly signed off on the Ecology proposal.

The Herald ended their piece with this slamming statement:

With one spectacularly wrong-headed move, the governor has handed anyone with an anti-development agenda a powerful new weapon.