Is it a lie or an 'ad lib'

There’s no question the governor misled the people last year when claiming his cap-and-tax scheme would add “pennies” to the cost of gas once it took full effect in 2023.

Gov. Jay Inslee has a degree in economics, as he reminded everyone at a news conference last week. And, yet, he assumed oil companies would simply absorb the added cost of complying with cap-and-tax?

Inslee came up with a new lie at that news conference, as part of a feeble effort to claim his scheme has nothing to do with state gas prices being so high – and much higher than in Idaho and Oregon. As reported in the Washington State Standard, the governor “seven times blamed gas price increases on the pipeline closure, insisting costs would fall when it resumed operation.”

The pipeline in question is BP’s Olympic pipeline, which carries fuel from the Washington-Canada border (near our state’s oil refineries) into Oregon. And contrary to Inslee’s assertion, the closure had lasted less than four days.

The pipeline was back in full operation more than three weeks before the governor’s press conference.

An Inslee spokesman tried to spin the repeated lie about the pipeline as an “ad-lib.”

Nonsense.

It was a desperate attempt to deny – seven times, remember – any responsibility for the state’s unpopular, nation-leading gasoline prices.

My July 7 commentary mentioned how I was among 43 lawmakers who sent a letter to the director of the Department of Ecology, the agency responsible for implementing the cap-and-tax law. In it we proposed several ideas that could end up reducing the cost of fuel, like increasing the number of no-cost carbon “allowances.”

None of these would require legislative action – the executive branch could handle them alone, if the will is there.

At last week’s news conference, a reporter brought up the list of suggestions Republicans made to Ecology. Predictably, her question’s reference triggered the governor to respond with another lie:

“You need to understand the little sneakiness of the Republican legislators… they don’t want to be honest with you what they’re doing,” he said. “What they’re doing is… they want to reduce the protection of Washingtonians against pollution. They want to allow more pollution… they don’t want to be honest with you but that’s what they are doing but that’s what they mean when they want to increase these credits [meaning carbon allowances].”

Inslee shouldn’t utter the words “honest with you” when he clearly has so much trouble being honest.

And when he accuses Republicans of being pro-pollution, the governor conveniently forgets that the first carbon-reduction bill to pass in the state Senate was a Republican proposal. It happened in 2015, when I was Senate majority leader… and a co-sponsor of that legislation.

The bill we passed was about providing incentives to reduce carbon emissions, which is pretty much the opposite of the government money-grab approach in Inslee’s “Climate Commitment Act,” as the cap-and-tax law is officially known. Being a Republican idea, our proposal didn’t get more than a public hearing in the Democrat-controlled House.

Over the years I’ve served with several Democrats who I could respect and even trust, because they were straight shooters. We could disagree about policy and priorities, but at least they would own up to why they were taking a particular position. If Inslee was capable of shooting straight with the people, he’d say something like “I blame fossil fuel for changing the climate and I want people to use less of it, so of course I support policies that make gas more expensive.” Instead, the governor pretends he can force oil companies to open their books, calling it “radical transparency,” as if that would somehow make gas less expensive.

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded is $4.93 in Washington, which is $1.03 higher than Idaho’s average and 34 cents more than the average price in Oregon.

Here in the 9th District, people could go across the border in Moscow yesterday and get gas for $3.99 and diesel for a dime more. You wonder what lame excuse Inslee will trot out next for why we are paying so much more than our neighbors, and far more than the $3.73 national average.

- Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, represents the 9th Legislative District. Email him at Mark.Schoesler@leg.wa.gov.