More Stuff To Watch For in 2018 Election Results

In addition to the party totals, here are a couple of more things I'll be watching in the 2018 election results.

It's the future versus the big oil companies' big bucks in Washington state, in a fight over a ballot measure that would be the first in the country to enact fees on carbon pollution emitters.

 The Union of Concerned Scientists and some big contributors--like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg--are for it.  But almost all of the $29 million spent to defeat it comes from fossil fuel corporations.

According to the Atlantic: "Tuesday, residents of Washington State will vote on whether to adopt a carbon fee, an ambitious policy that aims to combat climate change by charging oil companies and other polluters for the right to emit greenhouse-gas pollution.

If the measure passes, Washington would immediately have one of the most aggressive climate policies in the country. The proposal—known as Ballot Initiative 1631—takes something of a “Green New Deal” approach, using the money raised by the new fee to build new infrastructure to prepare the state for climate change. It would generate millions to fund new public transit, solar and wind farms, and forest-conservation projects in the state; it would also direct money to a working-class coal community and a coastal indigenous tribe."

  According to Inside Climate News:"Washington's Initiative 1631 could begin a movement in the U.S. to make the price of fossil fuels reflect their cost to the planet—a step economists believe would be the most effective market mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases."

Also interesting in this regard are three races in Iowa, in which Democrats are actually raising the issue of the climate crisis, even in deep red districts. These include J.D. Scholten, who is running to unseat the infamous--and infamously entrenched-- Steve King.

Inside Climate News: Key in all three of the contested Iowa congressional races are farmers, who have been battered by Trump's trade and energy policies as surely as they've been pummeled by the weather. 

Climate change may not be the leading issue being raised by the Democratic challengers—for Scholten, it's just part of his larger message that King is out of touch—but it is looming in the background, like the wind turbines turning in the horizon in Scholten's campaign ads. This election will test how long a state with 88,000 farms—and more than 20 percent of employment linked directly or indirectly to agriculture—is willing to tolerate elected leaders who deny one of the greatest risks to the farming industry."

"One thing about climate change—farmers care about that," said Timothy Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa. "Maybe not in the same sort of way you hear in a lot of other areas. But what happens with the weather—if it's wetter or drier—that's going to affect farmers' ability to harvest. They care about this."

Also, alternative energy is tied deeply to the farm economy in Iowa. In a state that is second only to Texas in wind power, farmers and other rural landowners earn an estimated $20 million a year from lease payments for hosting turbines on their land."


Meanwhile of course I'll be watching a couple of races in particular: the Democratic congressional candidate George Scott in PA 10, and the 21st district Delaware state Senate Democratic candidate Bob Wheatley.  I wish them well on Tuesday.