On I-2117, it’s not a fair fight
Context, column & commentary on the election battle over WA gas prices
Context, column and commentary today, skipping the audio podcast. I’ll start from the events that inspired the essay. Originally, the idea was simply to follow Brian Heywood from his appearance at the WREN Town Hall in held in Cheney on the morning of Saturday September 7th down to a Let’s Go Washington gas price roll back event in Colfax that afternoon. There had been front page coverage on The Spokesman-Review of a complaint filed by the No on I-2117 supporters against Let’s Go Washington for previous rollback events promoting a Yes vote on I- 2117. All I had in mind was to simply describe what I observed in Colfax and fill out the column with the history of the initiative.
Then it was brought to my attention that the $200 energy rebate checks came with interesting strings. The timeline setting up the consumer grant program paralleled the I-2117 timeline in a more than coincidental way, and the Dept. of Commerce had explicitly tied the timing of the payments to the election in an email. Copy of page 1 of that email thread as distributed to utilities all across the State of Washington and on to others is posted here:
If I’d had to go through a public records request to get it, it would be buried until well after the election, which is an argument in favor of making all correspondence public by default and requiring state employees to go through a process to withhold specific public records . . . but that’s a subject for another day. Now on to my column published Thursday, September 12th, 2024 in The Spokesman-Review, titled:
On I-2117, it’s not a fair fight
Brian Heywood is feeling a bit like David standing up to Goliath, or maybe that’s two Goliaths. Let’s Go Washington is facing not only a No on 2117 campaign funded by left-wing billionaires, but a grant program from the state of Washington using taxpayer dollars.
It became clear in December that I-2117 rolling back the revenue-generating carbon market system known as the Climate Commitment Act was going to make the November ballot. Gov. Jay Inslee sprang into action to protect his legacy project. He announced a one-time grant program to send $200 each to lower- and middle-income households across Washington. The $150 million program is being administered through the Department of Commerce.
In an email exchange on Wednesday, Mike Faulk on behalf Gov. Inslee called the program “one result of many conversations our office had with environmental justice and housing advocates about how CCA can support low-income households in the energy transition.”
To comply with the legislation signed by Inslee on March 29, the “funds must be deposited into eligible customers accounts on or before Sept. 15th, before the state votes on the initiative” according to an April 8 email from Cheryl Chan Hardee, deputy assistant director of the Energy Division for the Washington State Department of Commerce.
Commerce can apparently move fast when it wants to, and it apparently wants to defeat Initiative 2117 more than it wants to get assistance out to victims of the Gray and Oregon Road fires. Commerce is also responsible to implement HB 1899 to provide emergency relief for energy-related costs to households rebuilding housing. That small rebate program isn’t expected to get money distributed to anyone, no matter how eligible or how desperate they are as they transition, until sometime in 2025.
Let’s Go Washington has been hosting “Rollback the Price” events around the state to highlight the estimated impact of the Climate Commitment Act on energy costs at the gas pump, to raise awareness of the initiative, and to support a get-out-the-vote campaign. Left-wing backers of No on 2117 have called that paying for votes, even though the discounts are available to anyone whether they pledge to vote yes on the initiatives or not.
A rollback event was held Saturday in Colfax before the Washington State football home game. State Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, had the local equipment dealer bring in a new, bright red Case Steiger 715 tractor with a 520-gallon fuel tank to highlight the compounding impacts of the price of fuel. Food takes fuel to produce, fuel to transport for processing, and fuel to deliver to the local market.
On her family farm, a typical day’s field work would require approximately 400 gallons of diesel per tractor, and the tank would be topped off at the end of each day.
“Farmers get paid pennies on a bushel of wheat, so saving even pennies on a gallon of fuel makes a difference,” Dye said.
As she enjoyed the “new car” smell in the cab, the salesman from the dealership joked maybe if fuel prices were lower the Dye farm could afford to buy one.
For most of those pulling up at the pump in Colfax, topping off a fuel tank was a savings of less than $20 and cost them a few minutes of voter education from a polite young person. It was a voluntary interaction. No pressure, unlike the interaction between officials at Commerce and utility companies around the state.
Utility companies were originally told incorrectly that the Legislature “has required that all utilities participate,” in Hardee’s April email. Only later did Commerce clarify that participation was not mandatory, but real pressure to send a favorable message on the CCA came with the money.
Contracts issued with the grant program required utilities to use the CCA logo and the following statement on all related communications: “The CCA supports Washington’s climate action efforts by putting cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health.”
Heywood is not buying it.
“This disproportionately impacts people in the low-income scale and the Inslee administration knows it … and they built into this thing a $200 bribe to 675,000 households saying we’re going to send you $200 right before you vote,” Heywood said.
The contract for the grant program also states, “No funds may be used for working for or against ballot measures or for or against the candidacy of any person for public office,” but it looks an awful lot like election interference from the state with the emphatic emphasis on getting it done “before the state votes on the initiative.”
Has anyone ever filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission on the state Legislature or a state agency? It makes the millions raised from the billionaire backers of the No on 2117 campaign look mighty puny.
Column as Published: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/sep/12/sue-lani-madsen-on-i-2117-its-not-a-fair-fight/
And now for commentary. Here are a few notes and observations that didn’t make it into the column. Scribbled in my notebook at the rollback event in Colfax on Saturday, September 7th at the Cenex on Hwy 195:
76 Station: $4.13/gallon for regular unleaded
Cenex/Four Star: From 1:30pm to 3:30pm it was the national average of $3.30/gal. I was down a half a tank and filled up.
Observed a crew of young people handing out information to everyone who pulled up at the pump asking if they were familiar with the initiatives that would be on the November ballot. If they said no, the kids handed out a card describing each of the initiatives and their purpose and we're ready to answer questions. First interaction I listened to, the driver looked at the card and said Yep I think we signed all those. The next step was a postcard which the driver was asked if he would mind filling it in with his name and address and to check which of the four initiatives he would be planning to vote yes on in November. The information crew then collects the postcards and they will be mailed out when ballots drop as a reminder of their decision to vote yes and to get their ballot turned back in.
Brian Heywood was enjoying the big tractor, no surprise after his story of wishing he had a tractor when he was a poor kid and the farmers were the rich ones in town. Rep. Mary Dye said two years ago wheat sold for $9.50 a bushel and now it's worth $5.75 a bushel; doubling the price of energy and petroleum based inputs, the cost of operations, makes US products less competitive, lose the global market and our prices rise domestically.
Rep. Mary Dye confirmed during harvest they keep a tractor and disc hooked up in case of fire. A fire in her area this summer was controlled by 5 tractors with discs, and she said “we owe some guys some diesel.” It was the Lower Granite Fire, about 15,000 acres, threatened houses and one young couple lost everything.
Brian did some photo and video opportunities with the tractor, but mostly he stood by the side of the road with a vote yes pay less sign drawing people's attention to the price rollback on gas. He was clearly putting his sweat where his money is. I don't think we can say that for the billionaires who are pouring money into the campaign to oppose the initiatives
I didn't hear any drivers who were not in favor of voting yes on all four initiatives. Did see one cute little car with high end bike racks start to turn into our station and then turn away and go across the street to pay $0.83 more, which I interpreted as a form of protest. There were lots of takers for diesel because lots of folks drive trucks in farm country. Diesel was selling at $3.68 per gallon for the two hours. Some people went home and got their other rigs, told neighbors.
When asked what should be done if not the climate commitment act, Brian said that's not the question. “If the government is going to take your money, it needs to be transparent about the results and they're not even trying to track results. They didn't even build into the system any way to track the effectiveness of the money.” Brian said the final criteria listed on the state website for disbursement of CCA funds by the Department of Commerce was” does it benefit the Department of Commerce?” (Note: Did not go check that myself.) Brian said when the Seattle Times editorial board asked Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-Seattle) if the state was tracking outcomes he said no. (Note: Did check that, listened to the full recording of the editorial board session per TVW. There are no metrics, and the Results Washington website was scrubbed of climate change statistics when Gov. Inslee ran for President four years ago.)
Brian said “That's evidence to me that this is about money and not climate change.”
That’s it for today’s context, column and commentary. As always, reference links are included on the Substack post to this week’s background reading. You are invited to subscribe for notifications of new content on a variety of regional topics, with or without a pledge.
Let me know if you miss the audio version. Thanks for being a reader.
OTHER REPORTING:
Undivided Podcast:
“Billionaires spending millions to make sure working class people pay more at the pump for energy.”
Initiative I-2117 Background: https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2117,_Prohibit_Carbon_Tax_Credit_Trading_and_Repeal_Carbon_Cap-and-Invest_Program_Measure_(2024)
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/library/doclib/Myers-Initiative-2117.pdf
https://wacleanenergycredits.com/faq
Gas Rollback Event in Spokane: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/aug/21/lets-go-washington-offers-cheap-gas-in-bid-to-pers/
PDC Complaints Against Let’s Go Washington: https://www.pdc.wa.gov/rules-enforcement/enforcement/enforcement-cases/140213
Let’s Go Washington Campaign: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/sep/04/group-behind-state-initiatives-accused-of-violatin/
“Let’s Go Washington has been accused of illegally trying to sway voters to support four initiatives the group backs with offers of discount gas and burgers.”
No on I-2117 Donors: https://www.pdc.wa.gov/political-disclosure-reporting-data/browse-search-data/committees/co-2024-35713/contributions
Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/fact-checking-the-initiative-2117-debate/
Debate on impact of I-2117: https://tvw.org/video/the-seattle-times-editorial-board-initiative-2117-2024081082/
Olympia Politburo and commissar Inslee and henchman Ferguson know vhat is best for peasants ,will not tolerate dissent must use deceit if necessary yah!