‘Why is that even under their purview?’: Jake questions UTC’s authority to hide CCA costs

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) has ruled that people can now see how much they are paying toward the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) on their bills, and exactly where the money is being spent.

Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, questioned why the statements were ever hidden in the first place, claiming it’s “silly” for people to have no knowledge of where their money is being spent.

“Why would they not allow agencies to tell people where their money was going if they’re being charged more money?” Jake said. “Why is that even under their purview to be able to say to Puget Sound Electric. Why would they be allowed to tell PSE you are not allowed to tell people why you’re charging them?”

“They have finally changed it. They realized the error in their ways,” Jake continued. “It’s silly, people should be able to know where their money’s going. I think that the initial decision to hide that data from rate payers was outrageous.”

Public pressure forces reversal

Co-host Spike O’Neill poked fun at the UTC’s reversal, noting that public outrage pushed the agency toward transparency.

“Faced with overwhelming evidence and public outrage, the fact that we’re not telling you what we’re doing with your money, we’ve evolved to the point that maybe it’s a good idea that we tell people what exactly we’re doing and trying to accomplish with their money, whether we’re accomplishing it or not, we should tell them what we’re trying to do,” Spike said.

Jake highlighted that there may be a loss of trust in where people’s money has been spent, specifically citing a massive error the Washington State Department of Commerce made when reporting the benefits of the CCA.

The department reported that, due to a clerical error, it vastly inflated the projected emission reductions from eight rebate programs — claiming 7.5 million metric tons instead of the actual 78,000.

“I think it was honestly when the state released information on how much of the $1.5 billion that they had spent already to fight climate change that had been collected from the CCA, they gave a number about how much carbon had been taken out of the atmosphere,” Jake said. “They said, ‘Look at these amazing things that we’ve done.’ And the Washington Policy Center looked, and it turns out they overestimated by about 8,000%.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.