News Cap and Trade Bill Queued Up in Olympia
posted by on December 26 at 16:11 PM
During the 2007 session in Olympia, I bitched and bitched that the supermajority Democrats weren’t rolling up their sleeves on the environment.
In part, I was exasperated by leadership’s environmentally stupid push for a viaduct rebuild.
But mostly, I was dumbfounded the Democrats weren’t getting off the dime and passing a cap and trade bill. (Instead, we got Gov. Gregoire’s press conference panel something la di da.)
Well this year, Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-33, Des Moines), the new chair of the Ecology and Parks Committee, says his priority is a cap and trade bill.
Last year’s cap and trade effort was led by Rep. Maralyn Chase (D-32, Shoreline), and she was not taken seriously.
I’m glad to see that committee chairs are now behind the idea. Well, at least some. As I reported last week, the supermajority dems are up to their old tricks.
Which only proves that you can't trust a Dem any more than you can trust a Republican.
Go Dave!
As a side note, the Stranger has a love affair with Rep. Upthegrove. He'll be Speaker next.
So I know we all hate the jackass, lying, no good Dinosaur Rossi, but just to throw this out there, I have been pretty unimpressed with Gregoire as well. I mean, sure she's Dem. but honestly, she's been lean on the environment and she's continuously tried to meddle (for worse) in Seattle politics. Sure she did great things for gays, but even there I don't feel she was that instrumental. She just doesn't seem to be that strong and charasmatic about the issues that matter. I think before we all pile on to take DOWN Rossi, we better think critically about who were endorsing first.
Upthegrove did great as chair of the Select Committee on Puget Sound, so if anyone can get this off the ground its him.
Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. Dave is great, but Maralyn is still sponsoring the bill and nobody in Olympia takes her seriously.
The key Democratic leaders in Olympia have deadline cutoffs that force them (they say) to allow just 4-5 key bills to get through. Doesn't matter what the committee chair wants.
Like Gregoire, the other Demo legislative leaders want to presenting Democrats as GOP lite. For instance, Gregoire is not going to run on "frugality." Inspiring, eh?
We're all for fiscal responsibility but there is virtually no program passed that amounts to progressive movement forward for the great mass of folks in the state. Yes, we have raises for state emplyoees, and some other good things (children's health, equal rights progress) but nothing helping the average family.
Gregoire has totally intermeddled and failed on transportation issues. She has not been a leader in moving us toward more environmentally responsible transit, nor in getting anything done.
"We're not spending as much as we could have." should not be the frame, nor the heart of the Democratic Party's message.
Good luck on cap and trade, Dave Upthegrove, we're with you all the way. Sigh.
I want a tunnel, a viaduct, and an eight-lane superhighway down Alaskan Way.
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