The End of My Gubernatorial Campaign?

My candidacy for governor is likely to end next week.  It was never about winning but an attempt to use the campaign as a platform to tell the entire state residents deserve better.  (As expected the Seattle Times neglected to mention my candidacy despite finishing 3rd in 2016.)  It's another attempt to tell voters the Puget Sound area has already paid and will continue to pay a heavy price for Sound Transit and WSDOT failure to deal with area’s roadway congestion.

Voters were misled when they approved Sound Transit Prop 1 light rail extensions beyond UW, across I-90, or beyond SeaTac.  Funds spent on those extensions should have been spent increasing bus transit capacity along I-5 and I-90 corridors with added parking and express bus routes. Light rail funds should have been used to expedite light rail to Ballard and West Seattle.  The WSDOT should have been forced to limit HOT on I-405 to one HOV lane with fees raised to assure 45 mph throughout the commute leaving an additional lane for GP.

Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff may be able to construct light rail extensions.  However his ridership claims for the $96 billion light rail extension in the 2019 Budget Plan for 2017 to 2041 are delusional.  It’s only a question of whether Northgate operation in 2021 or East Link operation in 2023 demonstrate that debacle. 

The end of my candidacy will likely allow Rogoff to continue spending billions more on additional extensions.   The extensions will increase rather than decrease congestion and require additional billions to cover the shortfall between the longer route operating costs and fare-box revenue.

None of this would have been possible without the connivance of the Seattle Times, who abetted the incompetence, the city councils who approved the permits needed, and the legislators who enabled Sound Transit votes for funding.  They all likely welcome the end of my campaign.

The entire state has already paid and will pay even more if the end of my candidacy allows Gov Inslee and others to perpetrate the “Green New Deal”.    The claim “CO2 emissions are an existential threat” is based on the failure of climatologists computer model results to match measured temperatures.   They concluded matching computer results required anthropogenic (man--made) CO2 emissions have 30 times the effect on global temperatures as increasing energy from the Sun.  That sensitivity to CO2 is the basis for the need to slash fossil fuel emissions.

However the National Academy of Science in 2015 debunked that claim, concluding global warming is “likely caused” by addition solar radiation from the Sun.  A NASA 2019 paper concluded CO2 could increase from the current 410 parts per million “to 1000 to 2000 or to 5,000 and it won’t warm the earth”.

The end of my candidacy would also continue the futility of even attempting to significantly reduce fossil emissions.  A July 1 2020 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Today in Energy” reported the hundreds of billions spent adding wind turbines over the last 40 years provided only 2.5% of the energy consumed in 2019.  Whatever funds spent adding solar panels over that period provided only 1.0% of the energy consumed in the U.S. in 2019.

The problem has been only 35% of windmill capacity and 25% of solar power capacity is actually consumed by customers.  Until large amounts of energy can be stored for when the wind doesn’t blow or the Sun doesn’t shine the trillions spent adding wind turbines and solar panels will require fossil fueled generators for backup.  Thus it's unlikely the Green New Deal plan will ever provide more than a fraction of the country's energy used by consumers.

Much of any new wind and solar power will be generated far from where it’s needed, adding to the costs. By comparison fossil fuels can be found, transported, and stored near where the energy is needed.

Sooner or later my Sound Transit concerns and the futility of attempting to limit fossil emissions will be validated. Ending my campaign will make it later.