Don’t scrap new CO2 reduction program, but a fix to WA’s soaring gas prices can’t wait | Opinion

Washington state now has the highest gas prices in the country and there’s no doubt the price at the pump is hurting families.

People living in rural parts of the state, especially, can’t change their driving habits on a whim. If they live 20 miles away from town, taking public transportation isn’t an option. And few people have the means to simply go out and buy a new vehicle — especially a pricey EV.

What makes the price jump more upsetting is that state officials were way off base when they said the new carbon reducing cap-and-invest program wouldn’t have much effect on gas prices.

In fact, last year Gov. Jay Inslee said the new state tax on CO2 emissions would have “minimal impact, if any” on the price of fuel. “Pennies. We are talking pennies,” he said.

Obviously, that’s not the case.

While there are certainly many factors that affect gas prices, Todd Myers, of the Washington Policy Center, notes that our gas prices began to increase faster than other states precisely when the new tax took effect this year.

Surely, that’s not just a coincidence.

But when Washington state’s gas prices recently surpassed those in California and Hawaii, the blame game began.

In an interview with KIRO-TV news in Seattle this week, Inslee blamed corporate greed for the high prices.

He said the oil companies are price gouging Washington state, and he is now proposing a regional approach to the cap-and-invest program to counter that.

Inslee wants to join forces with California and Quebec in the hopes that a regional system would help keep gas prices in check.

Maybe that’s a plan that would make a difference, but it can’t happen right away. In the meantime it’s not much help to families taking such a big hit to their budgets right now.

Affordable Fuel Washington’s Dana Bieber spoke with the Tri-City Herald this week and said her group wants answers from state lawmakers.

“How did they get it so wrong?” she asked. “What are they going to do about it?”

She claims that the state’s new cap-and-invest program is three times more costly than what state officials predicted.

Her group has launched an email campaign to encourage legislators to fix the program. The more people who convey their concerns to lawmakers, the more likely adjustments to the program will be made. The email template can be found on the Affordable Fuel Washington website at affordablefuelwashington.com.

Of course, you can send your own email. If you are angry about the situation, the best way to vent is to convey your frustration to state legislators.

Solutions need to be worked out now — long before the January session starts.

Inslee told KIRO-TV that there’s no going back, so scrapping the program likely won’t be an option.

Reducing pollution is the primary goal behind the cap-and-invest program, and that’s clearly worthwhile. The program sets a price on carbon emissions by selling allowances to the biggest polluters in the state. Then that money is directed to combating climate change and promoting clean energy.

The problem is that gas and oil companies who end up paying extra don’t allow that cost to affect their profit margin. They pass it down to the consumer.

Sheri Call, president and CEO of Washington Trucking Associations, said the gas hike is hurting farmers and trucking firms that haul agricultural products.

These groups, among others, were supposed to be exempt from the new carbon law, but Call told the Herald it hasn’t been working out that way.

She said the exemption needs to come at the front-end, not with paperwork filed later. Many farmers and ag firms fuel up at commercial gas stations and have no way of getting the exemption because they can’t track the fuel directly back to the distributor.

This is a terrible flaw in the program that needs addressed as soon as possible. Many family farms are barely making it as it is.

Gas prices are higher than they have ever been in Washington state and the hike came right when the cap-and-invest program went into effect.

No matter how Inslee and others put the blame elsewhere, it’s apparent there is a correlation between the new program and the price at the pump.

They need to quit pointing fingers and fix the flaws in the program.