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THE SEATTLE TIMES ENDORSES IP 2066
The traditionally left of center publication, The Seattle Times, recently endorsed IP 2066. The endorsement by the editorial board is more of a statement that a more thoughtful approach needs to be taken to climate policy rather than the haphazard way the legislature handled it.
Synopsis:
By Seattle Times editorial board
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the more than 1.2 million natural gas customers in Washington will be among the hardest parts of the state’s clean energy transformation. State lawmakers owe it to constituents to carefully craft and thoroughly debate legislation so fundamental to our lives: the way we stay warm, bathe and cook our food.
Earlier this year, a slim majority of Democratic lawmakers failed to live up to those expectations. At a time when Washington’s power grid is increasingly under stress, they rushed a flawed but wide-ranging bill giving Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, new abilities to assess and request rate hikes to advance electrification. The bill passed each chamber in the wee hours of winter mornings — while most Washingtonians were asleep.
Initiative 2066 on this fall’s ballot is a course correction, requiring them to slow their roll and rethink their haphazard approach to this momentous transition. Voters should approve the measure.
This is not a recommendation The Times editorial board makes lightly. In fact, we urge voters to reject another initiative that would undo the state’s important Climate Commitment Act. It is a smart, and thoroughly debated, approach to reducing the state’s carbon emissions. The act’s core tenet, a cap-and-trade carbon market covering the state’s 100 biggest polluters, is a proven mechanism to reduce emissions; funds raised in the carbon market are helping make Washington resilient in the face of climate change. We need to keep it.
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