Inslee: Fuel standard won’t push gas prices up $1 a gallon
May 22, 2014, 11:32 AM | Updated: 3:43 pm
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says he’s not trying to hide a proposal that would raise gas prices because there is no proposal yet.
Reports were circulating claiming Inslee would be imposing a low-carbon fuel standard that could result in gas prices increasing $1.17 a gallon, but the governor tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson while they are looking at ways to establish a clean fuel standard, there is no proposal that anyone could draw costs estimates from.
“We’re looking at the ability to establish a clean fuel standard that will give consumers cleaner fuel with less carbon pollution and we are evaluating to see if we can develop a standard that will do that in a cost effective way,” says Inslee, who adds they’re in the middle of that process.
“We haven’t completed that, and until we do that, nobody can make any conclusions about any particular rule because we haven’t proposed one yet.”
People assigning specific values to the type of cost increase we’ll see are off base, the governor says.
“Until there is a proposed rule that we can actually evaluate, all of these are fictitious numbers.”
While Inslee wouldn’t give an exact number on an increases we might see, he would say it won’t be as high as $1 a gallon.
“A buck is too much. I’ll tell you that right now. People who are arguing gas prices are going to go up a buck, that’s shooting in the breeze, that’s horse feathers,” says Inslee. “Let’s all do a common sense, slow assessment of this and not jump to this fear-mongering that’s going on about this thing right now.”
The governor says while the final rule might be imposed by administrative order, there will be a big public process and plenty of opportunity for everyone to debate any proposal they come up with.
“We’re going to have an objective assessment of this by economists, by people who know the technology. Then we’re going to have a public process. If there is a rule proposed, it will be a public process where we have comments from everyone involved to rigorously put this up to the light of day,” says Inslee. “This rule will not be issued until there’s a very extended public discussion about this and everybody has a chance to weigh in on this.”
The governor says he’s even happy to have some of those discussions take place on The Dori Monson Show.
Related:
Is Gov. Jay Inslee hiding plan that would hike gas prices $1 a gallon?
