By Mary_Ukraine @Adobe Stock
“Jimmy the Numbers”
In a WSJ article, James Freeman reports on whoppers from the state of Washington. Gov. Jay Inslee fibs about the costs of his beloved climate agenda is just the tip of the iceberg. A keen reader of “Best of the Web.” notes how Inslee’s official falsehoods may have been aggressively enforced within the state’s bureaucracy.
From Susannah Frame of Seattle’s NBC affiliate KING-TV:
In a legal claim against two state agencies and the Office of the Governor. A former state economist has filed the claim for allegedly retaliating against him for refusing to keep quiet about his economic forecast on the state’s gas price.”
For the last five years, Scott Smith of Tumwater was a transportation planner for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). He was the primary WSDOT employee tasked with forecasting fuel consumption, pricing and revenues from gas taxes and fees. After 35 years working as a public sector economist, Smith said his career was ruined for his refusal to lie about how a new state policy, according to his mathematical calculations in early 2023, would jack up prices at the pump by 45 to 50 cents per gallon. He said the retaliation and pressure were so great he felt forced to resign.
Drivers Won’t Notice
State leaders told consumers not to worry: the cap-and-trade system wouldn’t add much to the price of gas. Two months before the policy went into effect, a top official at the Dept. of Ecology said drivers wouldn’t notice…
Purge the Evidence
On Ecology’s website, the agency featured a prediction that the Climate Commitment Act’s impact would be “very modest” and that Ecology had “evaluated prices under a range of potential market strategies.” That web page has since been removed.
“That (analysis) flies in the face of reality,” said whistle-blower Smith. “It’s really sixth-grade math.”
In a legal claim filed against WSDOT, the Office of Financial Management (OFM), and the Office of the Governor… Smith alleges he was pressured in January to keep quiet about his calculation that cap-and-trade would lead to a 45- to 50-cent increase on every gallon of gas.
How to Muzzle the Forecaster
Inslee’s deputy communications director for the governor’s office wrote, “It’s clear as we gathered information today about this, just how complicated the forecast process is and all the pieces that go into it. It would be prudent for (KING) to truly understand this process before drawing conclusions and reporting on claims that have not yet been investigated.”
Team Inslee responded, “… Smith’s claims of being told to ‘jimmy the numbers’ are being looked into.”
