Letters support CCA, plead with WA GOP, and decry cost of green policies, minimum wage increase
Climate Commitment Act is a winner
The critics of Washington state’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) find fault in the act passing on costs to consumers. Of course it does. The same is true of decisions regarding energy production by OPEC, Vladimir Putin, Nicolas Maduro and the Ayatollah Khamenei. Our gas prices also go up due to conflicts in the Middle East, political unrest in oil producing countries, hurricanes, damage to oil refineries, oil spills as well as how close gas stations are to I-5. We get no return from the latter, which we have no control over.
The CCA, however, provides the benefits of smokeless summers, fewer wildfires, a longer ski season, cooler water for salmon, more water for irrigating Washington’s crops, and higher flows in our waterways for shipping. All of which provide important economic benefits to the state. The CCA seems like a winner for consumers.
David Palazzi, Olympia
Stand up, state GOP
Dear WA State GOP: Please denounce the MAGA agenda. Don’t we have a statue that welcomes “your tired, your poor”, and a Pledge that claims “liberty and justice for all”? We sing “o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
So, Mr. Reichert and other party leaders, be brave now: Declare in unison, publicly, clearly that you denounce the vile, Anti-American values garbage coming from the national GOP candidates and platform, including textbook censorship to sanitize our history.
How did your party go from that of esteemed, principled leaders such as Dan Evans, Ralph Munro, Sam Reed, Kim Wyman, and so many others to the hate-filled, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, ethnocentric, dangerous venom of your two lead candidates, their enablers, and your national platform? Distance yourselves.
Nazis claimed “bad genes in Jews” to rationalize extermination; your two main candidates claim the same license to vilify Latino, non-binary, non-white, immigrant, Muslim “others” as a threat to our “superior stock” while these hypocrites’ wives and in-laws are non-Aryan immigrants. They praise “traditional families” and “humble” (aka: compliant-servile) women. How many divorces did you have, Donald?
Project 2025 provides dangerous rhetoric daily, and dictators are praised.
WA State GOP, don’t be complicit. Stand up for democracy. Denounce hate and division. Embrace inclusivity, please.
Gery Gerst, Olympia
The costs of green policies, minimum wage
The state’s green initiative favors the wealthy. Rebates mean you still, presumably, have to pay up front and make monthly payments, but paying more up front means less monthly overall. Electric cars, eco-friendly roofs, gas prices, heating/cooling systems — the wealthy can afford to pay for these things. Those who are not can only watch and wish they could afford them and enjoy the benefits.
Meanwhile, Olympia is considering raising the minimum wage. Why? Have they not looked at Seattle? California? There has to be a balance. Businesses — small franchises, medium-sized businesses and certainly, yes, corporations that raised prices and refuse to lower them post-COVID (which is ruining our country) will simply lay off workers and have to raise prices further. The result of increasing the minimum wage will not be what people think it will be.
My issue with this city is to quote someone who described Portland, “We are loving people to death.” The very people it is designed to help will likely see their hours cut or jobs cut. Everyone else will likely see higher prices on top of already unaffordable prices for those who aren’t making six figures, and thus, in my opinion, are entirely out of touch with the reality of what prices, wages, and salaries actually mean these days.
Advocates are forever my heroes, but they need to remember to always retain perspective and empathy for all citizens and stay grounded.
Jonathan Ammons, Olympia