“Personifying the resistance of small numbers empowered by big money is Sen. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale), who last week employed the loss of industry at Cherry Point to savage plans to reduce carbon pollution in Washington.

“‘While it is clear that international forces such as the price of primary commodities will impact jobs here, there are many things that we can be doing to protect and attract new jobs,’ Ericksen said. ‘Gov. Inslee is targeting manufacturing industries with massive new taxes and regulations that could drive out more jobs and make it harder to attract new jobs.’

“Ericksen questioned whether Ecology has authority to regulate carbon emissions, and declared last week’s ruling ‘a political opinion, another example of a liberal King County judge overstepping into the role of activism and legislation.’

“He’s wrong; but that makes him a force no less potent. Ericksen helped lead a coalition that was able to undermine and ultimately derail a debate on carbon pricing strategies during the last legislative session, an action that drew rebuke from the Seattle Times editorial board, who called the senator’s positions ‘wrong,’ ‘retrograde’ and ‘corrosive’ to public policy.”

Here’s the link to the 12/02/15 Cascadia Weekly to find the full Gristle column in that issue: http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/201548.pdf

Read this post in the Noisy Waters Northwest Facebook group here.