SPOKANE, Wash. – The organization “Let’s Go Washington” (LGW) wants to repeal Washington’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA), which the state’s carbon tax falls under.
The carbon tax is designed to make polluters pay for carbon emissions. The tax has been linked to an increase in gas prices, but the exact amount is contested.
LGW hosted an event at a Conoco in Spokane to raise awareness about this. They slashed gas prices to reflect the national average.
“In today’s market, I get up every morning, nice and early. I go to work like everybody else. And it’s hard. [We are a] Single-income family trying to make ends-meet. And when there’s a discount out there, you look for it,” Bryce Robinette, a Spokane resident who attended the event, said.
The group is pushing to eliminate the CCA in the upcoming November election.
“Statewide, we have an initiative on the ballot, I-2117, that would repeal that Cap and Trade program. And we believe it will bring gas prices back down,” Brian Heywood, the primary sponsor of LGW, said.
Heywood told NonStop Local that CCA has increased gas prices by nearly $0.5 per gallon.
“I know state-wide we’re anywhere between 20 and 50 cents a gallon…Statewide, we tend to be already 49 cents a gallon higher than the rest of the nation,” Heywood said.
Ryan Herzog, an associate professor of economics at Gonzaga University told NonStop Local that comparing Washington’s average to the national average is not the best way to look at the situation.
“What we find is that after the carbon tax was first passed, prices in Washington state, relative to Oregon and Idaho, did increase pretty significantly. At one point, if you were driving around Spokane last summer. Prices were almost 80 to 85 cents a gallon more than what you would’ve paid in Boise. Pre-tax, the prices were almost the exact same between Spokane and Boise. So it’s likely the tax contributed to a lot of that,” Herzog said.
One reason Herzog listed for this increase could be because refineries were learning and adjusting to the carbon tax.
“Since last summer, we’ve seen that gap fall significantly. And, in fact, when you compare Washington to Oregon and Washington to Idaho, the price differential is about 20 to 25 cents on average today,” Herzog said.
He says that Washington state is as far from the national average as it was before the carbon tax was passed.
According to Gas Buddy, the average gas price in Spokane, for the past 8 years, has been higher than the national average.
