Inslee’s Climate Change Consultant Recommends Cap-and-Trade for Washington

The climate change consultant hired by Gov. Jay  Inslee at taxpayers' expense has come up with a list of ways to curb the alleged effects of climate change, and they sound exactly like the failed federal plan.

Cap-and-Trade, which failed miserably on a national scale in the last couple of years, is a system by which the state sets emission (or pollution) limits for various industries. Industries can trade their credits with other companies, or purchase "credits" which allow them to "pollute" to certain levels.

If you exceed these levels, you are penalized. Cap-and-Trade failed nationally because the cost to industry was so high and the system was so fractured it never got off the ground. Financial and economic experts predicted it would bury many companies and kill whole industries, such as coal, outright.

Gov. Inslee is pressing ahead with his climate change bill despite these warnings.  The company he hired, Science Application International Corp. of Virginia, has made the following recommendations for our state:

"The programs that SAIC recommends that Washington study include cap-and-trade, energy efficiency efforts, ways to increase public transit, British Columbia's carbon tax and cap-and-trade approaches to limiting emissions."

They went on to say:

"SAIC recommended that Washington study California's cap-and-trade program, which will cover 35 percent of that state's greenhouse gas emissions in 2013-2014, increasing to covering 85 percent by 2020. A drawback is that California's system is still new, and its success is still up in the air."

 

However, they failed to mention California's steady collapsing economy, and that businesses, industries and people are leaving the state in droves. California is one of a handful of states including New York experiencing steadily declining populations over the last decade due to economic conditions.

Washington is having enough trouble attracting new companies, especially on the West side, due to excessive government regulation and some of the highest Business and Occupation taxes in the country.

According to Seattle media website Crosscut.com:

"The task force is supposed to have recommendations for the state Legislature by the end of 2013. The panel will meet next in early September."

These plans would have to clear the state legislature before any recommendations become law. They are almost certainly expected to meet with very stiff resistance.