SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Inslee using lightning-caused wildfires to push bogus carbon tax

Aug 21, 2018, 5:13 AM | Updated: 5:42 am

Jay Inslee is trying to engineer a multi-billion-dollar rip-off of taxpayers with the wildfires that are happening right now. As you probably know, lightning strikes started about 12 wildfires recently; most of the smoke we have here in the Puget Sound is from wildfires in British Columbia, along with some in the Cascades.

As I’ve pointed out, you can have absolute gridlock here in the summer, and if there isn’t a forest fire nearby, then the skies can be beautiful and pristine and clear as can be. But if a lightning strike causes a forest fire, then all of a sudden we are engulfed in smoke. It is proof that man’s role in carbon emissions is insignificant. As I’ve said before, carbon-based transportation represents about 100 years of the 4.5 billion years of our planet; a lightning strike and ensuing wildfire emits hundreds or maybe even thousands of times the amount of carbon of all of our cars put together.

But Jay Inslee, bizarrely, is using these wildfires as a reason why we should raise our taxes by hundreds of dollars in that bogus carbon tax that he wants us to pass this fall. “Unless we act, they will continue to be covered by this pall of smoke on their futures,” he said of our children.

RELATED: Time-lapse video from KIRO Radio studios shows Seattle blanketed by smoke

So if you raise taxes by billions of dollars, a lobbyist will slip some of that money to God, and he will stop lightning from hitting our state’s trees? None of this makes any sense. Inslee says that the wildfires are worse because we are tinder-dry. Actually, we’ve had wildfires caused by lightning strikes forever.

Inslee calls the carbon tax initiative a “very well-calibrated, sophisticated proposal which will give these kids cleaner air.” As I told you last week, the state gets $600 million from the tobacco companies per year, and they said they will use it to provide smoking cessation programs and anti-tobacco education. Well, the state is only spending $1.5 million on those things. The state would rather have people fill their lungs with smoke and their cells with cancer if the alternative is taking some of that money out of the general fund and spending it where they promised. Remember when they sold us on the state lottery? They said they would use that money to fund schools, but they hijacked that money and put it in the general fund; they would rather have crappy schools than to give up money.

So we’re supposed to believe today that if we pass a multi-billion-dollar carbon tax, it will go to clean air and clean water? No — it’s going to go to the general fund like everything else they do. And if you get suckered in again, that’s on you; I’ve been warning you forever.

FILE - An Ohio historical landmark sign is displayed outside the former home of Neil Armstrong Frid...

Associated Press

Retired pilot helps historical society buy Neil Armstrong’s boyhood home for tours

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Ken Schreiber was 9 when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon in 1969 — a moment he would never forget. Like Armstrong, he too became a military fighter pilot. So when Schreiber read a story in August that Armstrong’s boyhood home in Ohio was for sale and later […]

21 minutes ago

FILE - Pages from the Anthropic website and the company's logos are displayed on a computer screen ...

Associated Press

Anthropic commits 5% of its stock to a new ‘public benefit’ fund

Anthropic said Sunday it is committing 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund, with the fund’s worth potentially increasing as its shares grow in value. The shares will go to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new entity within the company. The fund “will have increased flexibility and scale, enabling us to […]

5 hours ago

In this photo taken with a smart phone, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, left, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem...

Associated Press

Jeffries likes Democrats’ chances in race for the House as he campaigns in Ohio

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — House Democratic leader majority control of the House. Jeffries also slapped back at President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to waive sanctions on Russia and said there will be a bipartisan effort in the House to pursue a new sanctions package that the president would not have the ability to waive. “It’s […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Massachusetts GOP lieutenant governor candidate suspends campaign after arrest in car crash

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Massachusetts dropped out of the race on Sunday hours after he was arrested in a suspected drunk driving crash. Shawn Oliver, a city councilor in New Bedford and a corrections officer, said in a post on X he was ending his campaign because […]

7 hours ago

Police tape runs across a crime scene. (Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)...

Tom Brock

Tacoma police investigate downtown shooting that left a teenager dead

A shooting early Sunday in downtown Tacoma has taken a teenager's life.

7 hours ago

Associated Press

Private jet skids off runway, hits fence at Las Vegas airport

A private jet went off the end of a runway during a planned takeoff at Las Vegas’ main airport Sunday and hit a perimeter fence, officials said. No injuries were reported in the 11 a.m. mishap at Harry Reid International Airport, said airport spokesperson Monika Bertaki. She didn’t say what caused the plane, a Dassault […]

7 hours ago

Dori: Inslee using lightning-caused wildfires to push bogus carbon tax