To take you into a rainy Fall weekend, here are the best quotes of the week.

The first is from the Los Angeles Times. Reporting on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) decision to institute a cap-and-trade system in that state, the Times story, "California becomes first state to adopt cap-and-trade program," contains this claim about the impact of that system on jobs:

Proponents and the Air Resources Board say the increase in "green" jobs will outweigh short-term negative effects.

Such thinking over the past several years has given California its current unemployment rate of 12.1%. This is also the thinking that saw Spain move from 8% unemployment in 2007, when it went on a governmental binge to create "green jobs," to 21.2% unemployment today.

These kinds of environmental protections have a cost. It may be a cost we are willing to pay, but to pretend they don't have a cost and pretend they will actually create jobs has not been backed up by real-world results.

The second quote is one we applaud, but is too seldom heard at environmental agencies. KUOW reported today that the "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for the Partnership to return more than $120,000 in grants" due to poor accounting by the PSP. The auditor in charge of the operation told KUOW:

Our business is to get money to organizations that are going to clean up the environment, so we do try to give them the most flexibility.

This is the spirit behind two proposals the WPC has put forward – the Climate Accountability Act and the Environmental Priorities Act. The goal is to put funding where it will make the most difference. Organizations that waste money, and squander opportunities to help the environment, should be held accountable for that failure.

There is frustration that the Puget Sound Partnership has not lived up to its promise to use a science-based priority list to promote environmental stewardship. The violations the EPA found occurred a couple years ago and there are indications that the PSP is making progress in the right direction with the new Executive Director. Politics, however, are ever present, and there should be continued scrutiny on the PSP's approach.