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Smiley's Policies Will Add Fuel to the Climate Disaster Fire by Alena Alvarez-Saldivar The UW Daily, November 3, 2022

Smiley may genuinely want to help, but the policies
she's pursuing will harm many Washingtonians

As a native Washingtonian who has lived in many different parts of the state, I find it incredibly important to talk about Tiffany Smiley's platform and the negative effects it will have if she is elected. While trust in government continues to fluctuate, there are still exceptionally important issues for Washingtonians and the country at large on the ballot: climate change, wildlife, agricultural policy, health care, bodily autonomy, public education policy, public safety, immigration, and access to resources like shelter and energy, to name a few.

Smiley's current popularity should not be surprising. Not only are voting trends outside of King, Snohomish, and Pierce county increasingly more conservative, conservative voters have been showing up to the polls more and more over the last six years.

Sen. Patty Murray is partly responsible for the problems we face as Washingtonians everyday. This is expected, seeing as she has been one of our senators for decades. However, many people and private and public systems are also responsible for Washingtonian's problems -- including UW students, both as voters and community members.

"I come from a small town in Snohomish county, and I think outside of the Seattle area, there are a lot of people resonating with Smiley's message," Srinandan Ramachandran, fourth-year student and co-leader of EPSAUW, said. "I get that, to some degree, because Murray has been in office for quite a bit of time and sometimes her voters feel like they're not getting what they want; she is not a progressive champion."

I, and many others, extend respect to Smiley for demanding attention to how rural areas of Washington have comparatively less access to and lower quality of health care than Western Washington. Additionally, Smiley has gained respect in her calling out the poor treatment of veterans in our community.

These are serious issues that are close to my heart, as well. Sadly, the policies that she plans to pursue will harm the majority of Washingtonians, and will not remedy many issues she and most Washingtonians care about.

Smiley's agenda is thorough in outlining how she would accomplish GOP goals. She believes in permanently extending the 2017 tax cuts, protecting the filibuster, increasing police funding, making Title 42 permanent, expanding natural gas, expanding oil refining capacity, banning federal loan forgiveness, and banning critical race theory (CRT) from public primary school. (This is very silly, because CRT is only taught in some law schools and specific, optional college courses, and never has been taught in primary grade public schools).

One of the most notable plans on her agenda is her support of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and her plan to "only ... support codifying gay and interracial marriage in the law" if there are strong religious protections in the bill.

Do not get me wrong, this woman has ambition. Her agenda explains even more plans and policy goals than I listed above.

But these plans will be incredibly harmful, and while everyone has been talking about the effects her stances on abortion will inevitably have, we should also focus on the potential harm behind Smiley's environmental policies.

Especially given that Washington has, up to this point, done a better job than most other states in the face of the climate crisis, Smiley's environmental policy plans need to be confronted -- they're some of the most concerning.

"I wouldn't necessarily say Patty Murray is a progressive climate champion, but when you look at her platform compared to Smiley's agenda, to expand pipeline developments and oil drilling, the differences could not be more clear," Kaylee Kobashigawa, fourth-year student, and co-leader of EPSAUW said. "We can't afford to develop any more fossil fuel projects, which is what Smiley is proposing in her platform." A large portion of her environmental policies have economic motives. Notably, in an effort to reduce gas prices, Smiley is targeting those across Washington who are particularly angry with the effects of not only our involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, but low-income residents, which is frankly, a lot of people.

"In the short-term, yes, this may help out with really high gas prices, and that really does hurt so many people in Washington, because we don't really have a developed public transportation system like the Northeast, but in the long term, if you want our economy to transition towards renewable energy, Murray is probably the better choice," Ramachandran said.

Additionally, Smiley plans to focus on a "forest management" approach to wildfires. This is the same approach that Trump had during his administration, where California suffered and Washington inhaled the aftermath.

Smiley also staunchly opposes removing four of the lower Snake River dams. The preservation of these dams is recommended to save the salmon of the Pacific Northwest. Our salmon are a keystone species. Not only is there grief in the news that our salmon might go extinct, it is extremely dangerous for our environment if the dams are not dealt with accordingly.

Washington did not use to have a fire season, especially not like the fire season we now experience annually. Wildlife, like our salmon, is something Washigntonians used to cherish.

With reductive climate policies like those on Smiley's proposed agenda, our fire seasons will worsen, the west side will be threatened by sea level rise, our salmon and other species will go extinct, and there will be no infrastructure to protect the most vulnerable in our communities from the increase in climate-related disasters.

All of us will be negatively affected by climate disaster, especially more vulnerable community members like those without permanent shelter and our agricultural workforce.

We are already feeling the direct impact from climate disaster through poor air quality and the threat of species extinction. Do not ignore the signals that we are facing an emergency.

"The choice is clear about who will listen to constituents about environmental issues, and also progress environmental policy, climate policy, but the climate movement should not end after the midterm," Kobashigawa said. "We need to develop momentum continually and not just focus on individual candidates, but strive for a social shift and enacting stronger policies."

Smiley claims her advocacy for Washington residents is stronger than Murray's, but her policy plans, particularly her environmental plans, suggest otherwise.

If you're eligible to vote in Washington, get registered, and to all United States voters, be prepared to show up for your community and vote by mail or in person on Tuesday, Nov. 8.