When designing legislation which has a chance of passing, there are a number of things which a legislator or non-profit needs to keep in mind. Based on my personal experience as a Carbon Washington employee, and volunteering for education and LGBT* rights, I have a few ideas, 3 regarding specific bills, and 2 regarding general …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Why a Pigouvian Tax Cannot Play Favorites
This week has been amazing, with three major pieces of legislation which will reduce emissions in Washington State over the (very) long term passing and being signed by Governor Inslee this week. This is following 5 years of work which Carbon Washington and Audubon Washington have been doing to try to get policies which achieve …
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The Mueller Probe is not over
Greek dramas are written in 3 acts. The first act sets the stage and gives a taste of what is to come. That was Mueller spending the last two years gathering evidence. The second act is a ramp up to the climax, which is many different pardon-proof trials happening all over this country in multiple …
Trump’s summary of the Mueller Report is bullshit
I am supposed to believe someone who was handpicked by a man who was just under investigation for two years that there was indeed interference in our election by a foreign enemy power (Russia), but that after repeated attempts to reach out to the Trump campaign, the Trump campaign said no and the Russians continued …
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Status of the 2020 election as of February 2019
This is proving to be one of the most crowded presidential primaries in a very long time. Only paying attention to governors and Senators (because those are the ones with an actual possibility of winning) we have: Cory Booker Kirsten Gillibrand Kamala Harris Amy Klobuchar Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren 6% of the Senate, and 12.8% …
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Fight Global Warming
Cut American emission in half Overview: EIAOverview of sources: EIA Where we need to do the most work: 50% of Northeast Ohio’s emissions come from electricity production. Geothermal plants could reduce this significantly. gcbl Wyoming has the most emissions per capita. 57% of their energy is for housing. Geothermal heating could significantly reduce emissions in …
City beautiful
I really enjoy looking at how good cities are designed as opposed to bad cities, and have found a list of several policies which I believe would be good to improve the livability of cities around the world. These policies should be applicable to cities of all sizes in most situations. Free Transit which serves …
Venezuela February 2019
There is a lot of talk about Venezuela currently with people making many erroneous claims. This is meant to be a relatively in depth study of Venezuela’s economy, political structure, and history. History Pre-History Venezuela has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. Colonialization Venezuela was conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century, …
Green New Deal
Representative Ocasio-Cortez presented her green new deal plan this week, and it s a non binding resolution. This is useful to give a signal which representatives are going for support a more es expansive policy, but it still leaves out details on how to do it. Wired did a fantastic job outlining the policy. She …
Why climate policy is stalled in Olympia
There has been a lot of talk over the last couple years about carbon taxation due to the work that I did along with friends of mine at Carbon Washington for Initiative 732, the first and most progressive carbon tax proposal in American history. We based it off of the highly successful carbon tax which …