In his annual State of the State address given to the Legislature on Jan. 9, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a measure to set a price on carbon emissions in the state.
Inslee said more than 75 percent of the tax would be reinvested in a range of emission-reducing and job-creating programs such as helping more people pay for energy-saving insulation in their homes, incentivizing further use of electric vehicles and buses, building more solar panels, supporting development of other clean energy technology, as well as updating irrigation and water management systems.
Inslee’s proposal would tax emissions generated by transportation fuels and power plants initially at $20 a ton, starting July 1, 2019. The tax rate would increase annually by 3.5 percent plus inflation. The tax would generate an estimated $1.5 billion in new revenue over the first two years and an estimated $3.3 billion over the next four years.
“Now is the time to join in action and put a price on carbon pollution,” Inslee told the Legislature. “Doing so will allow us to reinvest in all the things that drive down emissions… and by doing these things, we can save our forests. We can help rural economies. We can protect our waterways.”
Republican leaders are also expressing an openness to carbon pricing and action. Minority House Leader Dan Kristiansen (R-Snohomish) said in a Jan. 4, Associated Press forum that members of his party are working on a carbon proposal of their own, although he also told Seattle KVI talk radio hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson during a Jan. 9 show that carbon tax proposals were “tax rich, policy poor.”
Inslee’s proposal received local support from Avista President Dennis Vermillion. In a news release, Vermillion said “Under the Governor’s proposed climate change legislation, electric and natural gas utilities will have the ability to invest the carbon tax.” “Avista welcomes the opportunity to work with the Governor and the Legislature on an approach that supports our customer’s needs, creates technological advances, and considers the economic impact, even beyond the state’s borders, with the goal to improve our environment, he added.”
In his address, Inslee also laid out a series of measures he hopes legislators will act on in the 60-day session, such as fund the final step of McCleary in time for the 2018–19 school year; approve an capital budget necessary to fund hundreds of projects related to school construction, housing, mental health and more; protect net neutrality and ban bump stocks, close the background-check loophole on semi-automatic rifles and require safe storage of firearms.
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