January 18, 2008
Maralyn Chase's Greatest Hits, Volume 2008
As Eric Earling noted the other day, Maralyn Chase (D-Econuts) has been busy. But her ban on plastic grocery bags is just the beginning.
You may have heard about her carbon tax, or her use of the carbon tax to subsidize other businesses. But that sort of socialist redistribution of wealth is old hat, right?
You may also have heard of her bill to ban plastic water bottles; why should grocery bags have all the fun? She also wants to ban non-recyclable fast food packaging.
But by far, my personal favorite is requiring retailers of small-scale gas-powered equipment to give equal or greater shelf space and signage to electrical or battery alternatives, plus requiring that all state government agencies purchase the non-gas alternatives, and pays local governments to follow suit. The department of general administration will cease use of all gas-powered lawnmowers, string trimmers, and weed blowers by October 1, 2008. Oh, and it levies an additional six percent tax on all such gas-powered equipment.
If you have enough land such that electric and battery equipment is impractical, well, you shouldn't have that much land, of course! And if you sell a lot more gas equipment than electrical or battery equipment because there's many more gas models and no one wants the others, well, don't worry: the six percent tax will make up for your wasted floor space. That's how it works ... right?
And if any of you are passing by a Home Depot or somesuch, please count the number of different types of lawnmowers available. I'm curious.
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Posted by pudge at January 18, 2008
09:19 AM | Email This
1. As MC has proven, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
2. Realize that when the Northwest Planning Council identifies shortfalls in the region, the 400-500 Megawatts of power, this means 24x7x365.
In order to meet this shortfall with solar, it would mean 2400-3000 Megawatts of generation. If storage is contemplated, meaning batteries, there is still a shortfall.
In Washington on average their is about 4 hours solar gain. In order to provide power if 24x7 operations is needed, then 6 times the amount needed for 24 hour operation must be built. Unless you want to play the shell game and firm the 4 hours with 20 hours from another resource.
This is being done with wind, but at least wind is available about 33% of the time, not 16.6%.
If you store solar energy using batteries, for those who understand this concept, there is still a short fall, over 50% of the time.
Solar in Washington has been compared to Germany, same type of weather, same amount of solar exposure. What is not said is that the price for electricity in FRG is 5 times the cost in WA. When our rates approach 25-30 cents a kilowatt hour, now about 7-9 cents, then solar might compete.
One last conveniently overlooked point by our politicians, Photovoltaics, PV, solar products, are petroleum based.
If we are looking to energy independence, off oil, this doesn't make the grade either.
Maralyn has her own parochial interest at heart, the little solar company in her district of Shoreline, nothing more nothing less.
Our politicians talk a good game but are self absorbed, uniformed, and conveniently over look contradictory facts.
3. An Ivey League educated individual, who shall remain nameless, with a Physics degree I might add, spent the better part of three or four hours, a couple of weeks ago, on a rant about the screwings that the lower income demographic are being given thanks to ethanol production driving the price of groceres "through the roof." You guessed it - it is the fault of Republicans - although I could not follow the line of reasoning that brought her to this conclusion, I did take this much away from the conversation I was listening to. So, a couple of days ago, I was in the presence of this individual while she went on, and on, and on, and on, and on about the necessity of developing a plug in electric vehicle asap in order to lessen our collective energy usage. What this genious failed to have any concept of was the impact of plugging in a car on the demand for electricity and therefore the cost of electricity and furthermore she thinks we need to remove most, if not all, hydroelectric dams and is against the use of neuclear power to generate electricity. This is the level of intilect you are dealing with here folks. Highly educated absolute effing morons.
4. Let the free market decide! Every time they muck with it (e.g. crop-based fuels and the impact on food costs) they create consequences that most often impact the people least able to absorb the cost.
5. JDH: it is the fault of Republicans. And Democrats, of course. Both parties have supported ethanol, way, way too much (that is: at all). And it has affected taxes and prices, though not nearly as much as other factors.
As to the rest, right on. Being against hydro is stupid; being against nuclear is worse. With hydro, of course, there's a problem in building the dams etc., but once they are built, no reason to stop using them. And there are simply no good reasons to not build, and use, nuclear power plants.
6. ronin, yep. I-67 is going to hurt low-income people the most, as their tax rates go up the most as a percentage of their income. Same thing with all of Chase's plans: costs will increase, lower income people will get hurt the most.
7. Yes you can thank Bob Dole, and others of his ilk, he represented ADM over the interests of everyone else. As I have said, although I generally vote Republican I see it as the lesser of evils. There are exceptions, but for the most part, I have no use for politicians. When supporting them is in line with my objectives, I support them, but as far as personal loyalty...once bitten, twice shy is my motto. I have had Republican politicians hang me with a rope I have helped to pay for all too often.
8. Don't blame her on the Edmonds folks, thank you. Most of her territory is Shoreline, Kenmore (no longer redneck) and Lake Forest Park.
Wouldn't it be a piece of cake for a Republican to list these bills on some literature and ask "A NUT WE DON'T NEED, VOTE FOR ME"?
9. swatter, I would like to think so, but I have never run a campaign. I dunno.
However, this is part of what I'd love to see the GOP do this year, statewide and nationally. List parts of the Dem agenda that passed over GOP objection. List bills tagged with the emergency clause. List specific bills like this, sponsored by specific legislature.
If Obama is the candidate, listing major features of his Blueprint for America will be downright damning to him.
10. Problem is, swatter, that most of the people in her district are nuts as well.
11. Yeah swat, almost as good as a bumper sticker someone just sent me: 'Monica Lewinsky's X-Boyfriend's Wife for President' [smile]
12. Hillbill.
Put the beer down, it's way to early to be drinking.
13. Pudge, the link in your post for "Read the Rest" is missing from the main page. The Permalink works okay.
14. Medic, how about "Take a Swill from the Hill, Bill"?
15. Good one swat! By the way, what's your prediction on So Carolina.
16. Not today swatter. I'm at work.
You know a drunk medic may not be a good idea. (-:
17. Ha! This is all too funny, especially considering how most of our pols think the voters are downright too stupid to even understand issues and vote intelligently! This is truly an OMG moment. Where do these people come from, and how do they actually get elected? Were they born and experience anything before they took office, or are they pod people?
18. Seeing Bluto on there is no surprise but what's with Jim Dunn (r) from Vancouver?
19. And of all people, Rural King County's Rep. Geoff Simpson was the only other representative stupid enough to sign onto this bill.
There are vertually minimal transit options running by most of his constituants homes.
Talk about putting this state into a recession, imagin what the cost of goods would be if their transportation costs doubled.
Throw these bums out of Covington and Shoreline for even attempting such a massive tax.
20. Without plastic grocery bags, how am I going to carry my carbon footprint?
And, by the way, where did all this global warming go to?
21. pudge,
Respondig to your query above, I live in California and have a battery powered lawn mower. I found a dead gas-powered one in someones's trash and traded it and about $200 for a battery machine from our local electrical utility. WHOEVER SAID YOU DON'T WANT ONE IF YOU HAVE A LOT TO MOW IS RIGHT! I'll give the make/model only if someone asks, but I'm happy with it for my 650 sqft lawn. It only has a sixteen inch swipe so even that small area is a chore, but I was able to purchase a combo weed/wacker edgetrimmer for it, so I'm relatively free of the electric cord dragging impediment for all garden chores (which was may old mower, wacker, trimmer set-up). It has a handy "vacuuming" mode (not recommended by the company but I invented it none-the-less), so I don't even need a blower.
I'm not trying to be green here, although in my neighborhood that certainly draws oohs and aahs. I just got tired of gas cans, especially balky starters, the noise from everyone else's machines and the smell on my hands in in the garage from the fuel. Plus I needed three separate tools. I only miss the slight high I could get from the ether starting spray.
I checked my local Home Dope-ot (why anybody shops there puzzles me). They have only gas powered mowers in stock and in the catalogue. Washington isn't the only place in the world where the greens are ascendant - try the California ag belt.
22. Bob R: I actually have a battery-powered lawn mower too, the RoboMower. It died eventually, but when it worked, I could not do the whole lawn on two charges, let alone one. I had to mow the lawn in three stages. Now granted, the RoboMower is different, in that it has to go over the lawn multiple times instead of in rows, but still, the same form factor with gasoline could easily handle the whole lawn.
23. I am in Chase's district, in Kenmore. I can assure you that neither I, nor many of the neighbors in my fairly new housing development, support these nutty socialist wacko ideas. I am SO writing her a letter.
24. Here's bill:
A bill to ban all hippies from burning wood in their fireplaces.
How about that?
Would never happen...right.
25. Have you seen the cost associated with Chase's carbon tax bill? As required under I-960, the cost has been e-mailed to the public. The amount? $27.6 billion (with a "b"). And that's just one bill!
26. Bob R,
California is perennially short of electric power during summer months, so that is when you plug it in right? And Californians want me to be sympathetic to their summer electric power shortages. WTF, Homer - get a clue.
27. The leftist neighbor behind me has an electric lawnmower. She thinks she's saving the earth with the thing. It's incredibly amusing to watch her slowly mowing her lawn. It takes her several hours to do about 2500 sq. ft. I could do the same with my gas powered lawn mower in about 15 to 20 minutes. And she has to move the extension cord many times. The entertainment value is priceless. But I'm sure real environmentalists would scoff, they would expect us all to use scissors or simply stop mowing our lawns and let our yards become overgrown. Preferably until the trees fell down on the house and killed us all.
It never occurs to the left that electricity also comes from energy, and often from carbon based sources. Often we here the bleating for electric cars. If everyone had electric cars, our grid would be quickly overwhelmed. And then there's the energy density factor. It doesn't occur to my neighbor or the rest of the left that if it takes several hours longer to mow a lawn, that it is most likely taking more energy due to the improper application of an electric motor, where a gas powered motor is far more powerful and efficient. This is not always true with every application or every electric motor, but it does matter in the big scheme of overall energy usage.
And you have to pity and enjoy the special naivety of the left that allows someone like Maralyn Chase to exist. Here's a women, who has attained a pretty high-ranking state office, but who exists in a fantasy land in Olympia, merrily drafting demonstrably ridiculous legislation in the same way that a five year old might play with Legos.
28. It pays local governments to follow suit eh? Well I just can't wait to see the Kent Parks department line up all those battery powered mowers to groom Russell Road park. How about golf courses? Are there any still publicly owned? C'mon out Energizer bunny.
29. This woman and her ilk are a menance to society. Who in the hell does she think she is? Our lord and master?
You can just watch the power lust oozing out of every pore of these creeps. The global warming scam is their ticket to fame and power and they're not about to let such an opportunity pass them up.
So these Luddites have turned their sights on the ubiquitous and useful plastic bags and water bottles because in their infinite wisdom they have deemed them wasteful. By what standard? And why do they think they have the right to impose such a ban on us?
If the Luddites succeed in banning plastic bags and bottles tomorrow they will be demanding to set your therostat and the day after that how many gallons of gas you can buy a month and the day after that how many children you can have and the day after that... well you get the picture.
30. that's what you get for letting all the Californians move to your state
31. In honor of Ms. Chase, I drove our 13 year old to basketball practice in my '72 Pontiac Le Mans last night. 400 cubic inches of American muscle rumbling through the streets of Kenmore, leaving a hole in the ozone in its wake. Take that, Maralyn!
32. I say in honor of every tax and spend and grow government bill she authors, we give a campaign contribution to Rossi!
33. I could not live without plastic bottles.
In response to John Bailo, my dad couldn't live without being able to use his wood stove (which is the next logical step after fireplace bans).
34. She just dropped another bombshell 562 million dollar HB 2425 taxing bill regarding the sale and use of small scale powered equipment.
Read this HB 2425 turkey, she must not know how elecricity is produced. If she is advocating everything now be plugged in.
Watch out McLendons, Lowes, Home Depot, cause this tax happy freak is bringing her bottomless collection jar to a neighborhood near you!