Editorial I hate to keep harping on the WSDOE's "emergency drought" declaration, but it seems like it’s shaping up to be a Covid 2.0-like situation where the state is trying to dictate to us what and when we can use our water under the guise of an “emergency”.
In case you haven't heard, Washington state leftists believe (they) the state owns the water under it and you and I are too ignorant to know we should be conserving it, and probably be paying them a tax to use the water on our own lands.
This should come as no surprise, as the state, at the county level, basically owns the home you bought and paid for at the moment you began construction and you start paying them a hefty rent in the form of property taxes. If you miss a rent payment, they'll take your shiny new home and sell it to another renter on the steps of the county seat.
Logically, after taking control of our homes, why not take control of the only utility many of us generate for ourselves on our own property? The declaration of drought emergency gets them money to spend in the normal fashion the state does, coming in waving cash all over to lavish things on local communities to start programs, only to leave them high and dry in the coming years to fend for themselves, as all the state really wanted was to pile a load of regulations and restrictions on local ppl and then leave.
****Bear in mind the $4.5 million they will be spending is taxpayer money.
It's too early to tell, but this reeks of an Inslee swan-song to get just one more dig in before he exits stage right. Like the proverbial frog in the frying pan, this looks like yet one more Democrat-fueled Marxist power grab.
In case you can't tell, I'm not a climate alarmist sympathizer. This hysterical pronouncement is not "following the science". As meteorologist Cliff Mass states:
“We live in one of the wettest locations in the U.S. A region that possesses a very modest population considering the carrying capacity of the land and one that generally receives much more precipitation than we need or can use, with the surplus water surging out into the Pacific. In such a situation, does it REALLY matter that our precipitation is 10% below normal and snowpack is down a third? Kind of silly really.”
He goes on to note:
“Another strange observation is that this [the DOE] map is FAR more aggressive with drought than the perpetually drought-crazy NOAA/USDA Drought Monitor graphic (below).” “The Federal Drought Monitor has NO dry conditions over more than half the State. Drought conditions are only claimed for perhaps 20% of the state.”
“Why is a state agency putting out drought information in contraction to the Federal numbers?”
“As I will show below, the state has had only slightly below-normal precipitation this winter and the current snowpack is about 65% of normal. The forecast impacts are minor at best and reservoirs are generally in very good shape.”
I believe it’s high time We the people stand up to this kind of tyrannical behavior. The reason the political left is emboldened to act so autonomously is because they are largely unopposed and thus far, acting with impunity. They need to feel our wrath. This November there are 3 ballot initiatives aimed at reigning in state Democrats and restoring a semblance of sanity to Olympia’s tax and spending spree of late. I-2117 aims at repealing the Cap and Trade scheme Inslee and the usual suspects have enacted after being solidly turned down at least twice by the people they supposedly work for. This kind of eco-terrorism we don’t want or need.
And yet be ye of good heart, just because you turn down tax and spend Democrats Cap and trade money conveyor from your pocketbooks to their hands doesn’t in any way negate our love of the environment or our concern of pollution and good stewardship. Hopefully this November, we will be sending a strong message to Olympia that we are no longer hostages to their political climate agendas and we want our money back. Denny Martin Elma resident