In this issue, we pay homage to image-heavy storytelling, through a short comic that tells the story of a surf rock band in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Indigenous storytelling has long been interested in recording collective history, and here we honor that tradition. In other stories, we dive into divisions over the Green New Deal, how heat hits poorer neighborhoods harder, and why Wyoming’s public lands are the least accessible than any other state. Read why you should be eating roadkill, and how Elizabeth Warren’s claims to Native ancestry are damaging to Indigenous communities. And learn how the federal shutdown damaged good science.

Credit: Weshoyot Alvitre Credit: Weshoyot Alvitre

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Part of the problem

I was one of the founders of the organization that gradually morphed into Climate Solutions, but broke with them when they closed their Energy Outreach Center. Frankly, Climate Solutions was a significant part of the problem. The refusal of “big green” to support the revenue-neutral carbon tax in 2016 resulted in a large cadre of climate…

by Jim Lazar

Suspicious spending

Thanks for your article on Initiative 1631 (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19). You touched with only a few sentences on the reasons for its defeat, however. Most supporters and certainly the framers of this initiative have come to realize the importance of the following in trying to pass restrictions on carbon emissions. Any fees…

by Robert Pilger

Taxes vs. common sense

I am Native, a homeowner and retiree. For me, Initiative 1631 (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19) came down to a couple of points for voting no. Foremost: yet another tax. Taxpayers in Washington are weary from all the taxes. Every time a new idea crops up in government, the taxpayer is leaned on…

by Ricardo Rosales

The Carbon Dividend Act

“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” was excellent. However, it failed to discuss the main alternative to a “carbon tax,” which does, in fact, have bipartisan support on the federal level: a carbon fee and dividend proposal currently before the House and Senate. The real reason a carbon tax will always fail, as you point out,…

by James Ferguson

Another badly written initiative

In my opinion, the carbon tax initiative failed because of the way it was written and the open-ended question of costs (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19). I’m a retired senior citizen, considered low-income, and I find living here is becoming unaffordable, within 20 square miles. I read the initiative, as I don’t sign or…

by C. Richardson

Climate conflations

Thanks for your post-mortem on Initiative 1631 (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19). I think you missed one of the main reasons it failed. 1631’s design made it as much a “social justice” initiative as a climate initiative. Talk with some of those who backed Initiative 732, including Audubon. The Sierra Club and 350.org killed 732 because…

by David Engel