"..the Washington legislature had balked at passing a cap-and-trade bill."

I have my doubts about cap and trade, but that does not mean that I am right. I am no expert on this, this is why we have a representative democracy to study this and do what is best. Lobbyists can lobby and corporations can contribute, but Public Money for Public Office would keep it a more level playing field for us all.

Just think of "cap-and-trade" as a *hidden* carbon tax.
Cap-and-trade is a extra cost that the companies you buy from have to pay to do business: Of course THEY don't eat the cost, they just pass in on to you with out telling you; why you're paying it, how much, and what you could buy instead to not have the cost passed on to you.

Obviously this governor grew up in the era of "I dream of Jeanie" and "Bewitched." Perhaps Samantha will wave her wand and allow the violation of the second law of thermo-dynamics. She has obviously never heard of the honesty of the ancient British King who sat in a chair by the sea to demonstrate that even Kings cannot command the tides.

The only way a relatively modern coal-fired power plant can cut its carbon release in half is not to operate at full power. It would be far cheaper for society to have the Governor order the purchase of two CANDU 600 reactors and have them delivered and built in less than five years than to think that this coal fired plant can reduce its carbon use to one/half the present. Less than a hundred people met their demise by the radiation released by Chernobyl, but thousands meet theirs in coal mines.

It is important to discover or remember that all live things have forever breathed out CO2 or other green house gases and given off nuclear radiation at the same time. Most non live things also give off nuclear radiation.

Washington state should forbid the export of Columbia River power to California and pay the owners of the coal mining contracts and the power plant for their lost income. The people of Utah can take any excess power to replace the Coal fired plants in Utah that supply 95 percent of the power in the state. Some Utah water did flow into the Columbia but none did from California.

Washington State, if it is serious about reducing CO2 release can just drop the speed limit on all highways to 55 mph or less. The increase of fuel consumption to get to a destination increases substantially with speed. Absolutely no large cars or high horsepower cars should be allowed to be sold or registered in the state.

Better yet, every driver in the state is issued a credit card driving permit and is allocated a standard limited amount of gasoline, and gasoline can only be bought with such a card. The amount of gasoline sold in the state in five years will be limited to half what is sold now. Dealers will not be able to get any gasoline to sell if they do not reduce their sales to half of what they are now. Home owners will have their natural gas cut off, if in five years they are not only using half the natural gas that they used this year.

I do not think that much of the CO2 reduction efforts by many of the states are actually constitutional. If a power company is limited in its CO2 release what about the additional CO2 release cause by WalMart that sells unnecessary items to people. What about a high CO2 tax on items other than food and basic clothing.

In this economy we do not need expensive GREEN laws when it cannot be shown that such will make a difference. If entire populace and industry of the state were to dissappear in a volcanic explosion, the CO2 reduction would not be noticed in London. It is just making bad laws and regulations for appearances.

A regulation that required cogeneration in every commercial building or home, that used natural gas or had it available, is the least costly and most effective way to reduce CO2 release, and in fact it pays for itself to the operator of the building.

If this official truly were interested in reducing CO2 levels, she would order the construction of Nuclear reactors near or under every large town or city to supply hot water heating to most residents. Her order would require no obstruction to this construction by anyone. Instead she believes falsities promoted by untrained environmental religionists. Much of the information that she has received and believes would not stand up as facts in court.

This governor wishes to make the poor pay more for their basic electricity, and thus partially deprive them of food and health care, without similar forceful measures against the wealthy with many high powered cars, high electrical consumption, large houses, many jet trips and many purchases of items made and brought in by a large expenditiure of fossil fuels. The power company does not force people to take electric power.

She wants to Crucify the Poor of her State, and by her example the poor of other States, on a Cross of Carbon.

It is not true that hydro-power does not release green house gases. The organic materials that once flowed into the Pacific are now trapped in the shallows and depths behind dams and are decomposed into methane, one of the worst green house gases naturally available. If buried in the cold depths of the ocean, organic materials sometimes never decompose or are otherwise trapped. Permanent beds of Methane hydrates are trapped in the cold depths forever. There are many such deposits known and unknown. ..HG..

It's nice to see Washington State lead the way on some of these topics (others States are making great progress as well).

I look forward to other states following suit.

It is nice to see that Henry Gibson has returned to our midst. Welcome back Henry and thank you for your thoughtful comments. In your absence I can tell you that the mountain of evidence against the theory of global warming resulting from man-made CO2 has only grown larger.

Unfortunately the stubborn AGW clan refuses to see they've lost the public mind to hard science. So they continue down the every more abandoned road of GHG mitigation which even school children realize is not a real necessity. What children DO realize is that we need to mitigate our fossil fuel consumption. This is already being done via electrification of transport.

Since we now know that atmospheric CO2 is a powerful plant fertilizer that INCREASES plant growth worldwide - the coal fired generating facilities are only a liability due to real pollution - which is already regulated and may be further. The people of the State of Washington are aware of the scam/scheme called Cap N' Trade. That's why their legislature refuses to heap this burden on the taxpayer. Especially in such a drastic recession! As Henry notes Cap N' Trade is merely a masked carbon tax, passed on to consumers.

Energy independence is the path we are all seeking. True independence lowers fossil fuel use, reduces pollution, provides jobs, keeps $700B at home and restores domestic manufacturing via new technology. It can be achieved by a broad portfolio of nuclear, traditional and alternative energy resources - all domestically based. A good place to start is the residential consumer. Provide subsidies for CCHP generating equipment using our vast NG resources to phase out old water and heating systems. By converting residential sectors to residential power units we can lower grid and single point energy demands by one third.

These are only big challenges now in the face of the greed-based money grab called "global warming." This is a once-good campaign gone terribly wrong. Cap N' Trade is an investment scam on a colossal scale that enriches a handful of traders in commodities markets and costs the productive sectors of business their livelihood.

The entire charade is based on the now completely falsified theory of AGW. It has been proven wrong a hundred times over. The dead don't want to accept their death. CO2 does NOT cause the Earth to warm. Natural variation does. We are NOT bigger than nature. Just ask Pen Hadow recently rescued from an aborted North Pole trek due to extreme -40C temps. Nature froze his comms, his radar, his flesh and his ego. Nature laughs at claims that man controls the climate. He is puny. As is his ability to change the climate.

Until we get Public Money for Public office to offset the special interests, we will have the general interest at a disadvantage. Tax payer money to counter balance private donations would be the best $5 per year the voter ever spent.