State Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen
Our addled governor is not doing well with his “climate change” presidential campaign. A recent Monmouth University poll had him stuck at zero percent, among voters in his own party. His staggering failure might be entertaining if it wasn’t doing serious harm to the economy and working people of southwest Washington.
A few months ago, Jamal Raad—a spokesman for the governor’s presidential campaign—told the environmentalist trade publication E&E News that the governor “has led opposition to oil and coal export terminals proposed for the Washington coast.” This gaffe implied that the governor had been involved in decisions by two state agencies (the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Ecology) to deny lease requests and permit applications submitted by the Millennium Bulk Terminal project in Longview. The project would create hundreds of family-wage jobs in an area that sorely needs them.
The governor is not allowed to directly influence agency permitting decisions.
After the Department of Ecology denial, the Millennium project’s developer filed suit against the state, alleging a “biased and prejudiced decision-making” process. Raad’s comments seemed to support those claims. The governor’s office in Olympia responded by throwing the campaign spokesman under the bus. Spokeswoman Tara Lee pointedly pointed out that Raad is “on the political side of the governor’s operations, not related to the communications team in the Office of the Governor.”
That episode was merely a prelude to a more recent and more damaging screw-up.
Just a few days ago, the governor reversed his previous support for an even bigger project—a multi-billion dollar methanol processing facility proposed in Kalama, a short drive south from Longview.
After signing an unrelated bill that would ban “fracking” for oil and natural gas in Washington, the governor stammered through a prepared statement: “We want to be consistent to that spirit of progress. Therefore, I cannot in good conscience support continued construction of … a methanol production facility in Kalama. … I am no longer convinced that locking in these multi-decadal infrastructure projects are sufficient to accomplishing what’s necessary.”
Another spokeswoman had to clarify what the governor actually meant: “As we learn more about the urgency of climate change and the need to act now, long-term natural gas is not consistent with where we want to move as a state. Where we once thought we could use these as cleaner options, we just don’t have the time to do that.”
This was a surprise.
In 2015, the governor called the Kalama project “one of the most innovative clean-energy projects in the nation.” He echoed the project developers’ science-backed claims that relatively clean, natural gas-based methanol would be much better for the global climate than the dirtier, coal-based methanol currently being produced in Asia and other parts of the world.
Earlier this year, senior staffers with the Office of the Governor personally assured representatives of local building trade unions — who like the Kalama project for the hundreds or even thousands of jobs it will create — that the governor was still supportive.
So, again, there seems to be tension between the governor’s campaign staff and Capitol staff. In a desperate attempt to move up from zero percent in the presidential polls, he listened to the politicos, and flip-flopped.
Faced with this profile in cowardice, the head of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council chose his words diplomatically: “I worry that Jay’s interests here are more tied to his personal presidential ambition than what the science says and what is right for this state.”
The Washington Building & Construction Trades Council issued a detailed statement that said, in part:
“It is unfortunate that Governor Inslee has chosen to take this stand. … The science and reasoning behind (the Kalama project) and the mitigation for the challenges facing the environment have been substantially improved. …We understand that continuing to support these important projects would create political difficulties, regardless of the improvements that science bears to be true. So, in this case it appears that the politics outweigh the science, and unfortunately families, communities, businesses in Washington State, and the health of the planet will suffer the consequences.”
Likewise, the business agent for the plumbers and pipefitters union local in Longview has said that his union — which supported the governor in previous campaigns — isn’t sure about supporting him in the future: “If he continues to send the message that he’s the climate change candidate, given what we’ve seen here, it’s probably not something we’d support.”
Of course, some special-interest groups, including the usual anti-development hysterics at the California-based Sierra Club and Oregon-based Columbia Riverkeeper, have screeched their support of the governor’s flip-flop. Those groups, notorious for busing seedy out-of-state protestors into southwest Washington whenever there’s a public hearing on a development permit, have become politically toxic here.
No one’s explained this to the governor, who’s tied his political ambitions to those toxic few. That mistake is costing him what little popular support he had left in southwest Washington. He doesn’t seem to understand. Or maybe, mesmerized by desperate presidential delusions, he just doesn’t care.
