Politics Reporters Jim Brunner and Daniel Beekman look at the progressive family feud over Initiative 732, which seeks to impose a carbon tax in Washington based on one in place in British Columbia. They also unveil two political losers this week: Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Seattle's wasted tax dollars on a media-leak probe.
Seattle taxpayers and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson were losers this week, as Mayor Ed Murray’s $65,000 investigation into leaked documents ended with a whimper and Ferguson’s office faced sanctions for deleting emails pertinent to a lawsuit over the Oso mudslide that killed 43 people in 2014.
In Episode 5 of our weekly Seattle Times politics podcast, we explain what happened with the mayor’s probe and break down Ferguson’s email scandal.
Then we sit down with a proponent and an opponent of state Initiative 732 to figure out why most of Washington’s environmental groups and progressive organizations are opposing a tax on carbon burned in oil, natural gas and coal.
- At 0:40, we unveil our winner for the week in politics: no one. Jim Brunner says, “Everybody needs to do better.” Murray’s investigation into leaked documents related to a new union contract with Seattle cops lasted two months but went nowhere, Dan Beekman says.
- At 3:35, we discuss the family feud between climate-change activists over I-732. “It’s one of the more bizarre political fights I’ve seen in this state,” say Brunner.
- At 6:05, I-732 backer Yoram Bauman, a PhD and comedian who styles himself a “stand-up economist,” describes the ballot measure as “a grassroots efforts that’s been motivated by hundreds and thousands of people in Washington state who feel like we have a moral obligation to take action.”
- Bauman slams environmental groups like the Sierra Club at 11:30 for not supporting the carbon-tax initiative. At at 21:00, he says the measure’s plan to cut other taxes appeals to voters who disagree with Donald Trump about climate change but who nonetheless have “conservative tendencies.”
- At 22:45, I-732 opponent Rebecca Saldaña of Puget Sound Sage calls the measure imperfect. When it comes to taxing carbon, “We can’t afford to get it wrong,” she says. And at 36:00, she suggests “white privilege” may be partly responsible for conflict around the plan.
Most Read Local Stories
Subscribe to The Overcast on iTunes, TuneIn or via RSS. If you listen on iTunes, leave us a review there (and please be nice — we’re new at this).
Find and listen to past episodes of The Overcast here.
Send us your feedback and your nominations for next week’s winner and loser in local politics. Leave a comment on this post, tweet at us (@Jim_Brunner and @dbeekman), email us (seattletimesovercast@gmail.com) or drop us a voicemail at 206-464-8778.