From Don and Alona Steinke
What about the exemptions to Initiative 1631?
According to Ahmed, Yes on 1631
The line used by the oil companies that 8 of the top 10 largest emitters are exempt is a lie and deception. The Seattle Times and King 5 both did Fact Checks on it saying it’s false. And in their endorsement of 1631 the Olympian called it out as “misleading”.
I-1631 covers 80% of the state’s climate pollution – that’s more than almost any other policy proposed in the nation.
The oil companies’ argument is that we’re going after fossil fuels not after biomass and pulp and paper.
That’s not an exemption, that’s just not what this initiative is about. This initiative is about getting us off a FOSSIL FUEL ECONOMY and onto a CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY. If you want to regulate the pulp and paper industry next year, be my guest – I’ll fight alongside you, in fact I’ve been fighting them for years.
And so have endorsers of I-1631 like Stand.Earth, Greenpeace, The Sierra Club and many more! Nothing in I-1631 prevents us from hitting pulp and paper over their emissions. And in the overall scheme of our state those emissions are relatively minor – less than 10%.
Yes there are targeted exemptions for key industries like Aluminum, Steel and Concrete. Industries that here in Washington state are FAR LESS carbon intensive than their out of state counterparts, and provide Union Jobs.
If we want to build out clean options like light rail, wind and solar we need steel and concrete and aluminum. No one who is upset about those exemptions has been able to explain how buying those products from out of state where they have higher climate impacts and the climate impacts of shipping actually helps the climate.
Keeping those facilities in-state and investing in making them more efficient is smart policy, it’s good for our climate and our environment.