Washington Votes Forum

It is sad that all supporters of this bill are culpably ignorant or in denial of immutable facts concerning greenhouse gas reductions.

The bill concerns CO2 emission reductions rather than all greenhouse gases. So called greehouse gases include water vapor (about 90%), while CO2 content is 0.003 %, a trace of the total content. More that 2/3 of the CO2 in the atmosphere comes from natural sources, such as soils, volcanos, and oceans. CO2 is not a pollutant; it is essential to all forms of life on our planet. There is no scientific proof that CO2 emissions cause climate warming. Climate is a closed, non-linear, chaotic, complex system, many elements which are not well understood. Men are incapable of influencing, much less changing the climate any better than we can control tides, gravity, our sun, ocean currents, earthquakes and other geophysical phenomena.

Weather has been cooling since 1998. The current global temperature is the same as 1974. There is no reason to reduce to reduce CO2 emissions because for every ton that is reduced here, Russia, Brazil, and India will add 1.5 tons.

HB 1718 will cause disastrous damage to the state's economy. If enacted, the price for basic and essential products and energy will soar. HB 1718 will inflate the price for steel, aluminum and other smelted metals, all petroleum products, electricty, cement, food and dairy products, to name a few. At a time when our economy is crippled, HB 1718 will cause job losses, inflation, and make infrastructure construction more costly.

HB 1718 is dangerous, and worse, it is stupid.

 Paddy you are correct in your analysis. If this becomes law we are doomed. This is the next step toward tyranny through social engineering and is proof that our state government has become as bloated and overstaffed by brearucrats as the federal government. You would think we could learn where central planning leads from the implosion of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall but it's not about the environment or our health and welfare, it's all about CONTROL. After reading this bill look at the 10 planks of the communist manifesto and see how many of the planks have been incorporated into this bill. 1) Abolition of all property rights. Note all of the infringements of property rights found in this bill. 2) Heavy progressive income tax. It may not be an income tax but it's a heavy, progressive tax on construction, development, business and private vehicle use. 6) Government control of communications & transportation. Duh, that one's pretty obvious. 8) Government control of labor. This will expand the number of state employees significantly as well as the requirements for representatives of labor on some of the planning boards and commissions. 9) Corporate farms, regional planning. It's the biggest expansion of regional planning in the history of our state. Five out of ten ain't bad! I like the part about state financing and taking first lein position on property titles. Forclosure, can you say land grab? I think somebody has been studying at the school of Wall Street, Banksters and Bailouts! If these are such great energy saving ideas that pay for themselves through energy savings why isn't the free market all over it? We all need to be better stewards of our planet but let's look to the biggest polluters first and that's of course GOVERNMENTS with the military industrial complex cartels in first place  so maybe we should start there! (don't watch the man behind the curtain, be distracted by the Co2 emissions)