Gov. Inslee could raise gas prices by $1
Jan 23, 2014, 11:05 AM | Updated: 11:08 pm
Jacking up gas prices by $1 per gallon and killing up to 95,000 jobs – sounds great, right?
A new policy in Olympia, auspiciously to reduce the state’s carbon footprint, could have those detrimental effects. And, Gov. Jay Inslee is threating to use an executive order to force the policy into being.
David Boze welcomed Bellingham Republican State Senator Doug Ericksen to talk about a new low carbon fuel standard policy. The standards would require gasoline to be mixed with other additives to reduce the carbon footprint of cars.
Ericksen said that some experts who have testified on the fuel blends say they could add 50 cents to $1 on top of the price of gas per gallon.
Some experts say prices would go down, but that relies on the building of six plants to produce the plant-based additives. Currently, zero plants exist.
Scarier, Inslee and the state Department of Ecology feel they are on firm legal footing to implement the standards via executive order. Ericksen says the Senate is meeting with lawyers to determine if that’s legally feasible.
Other consults the Senate has heard say that environmental policies like this one could kill between 50,000 and 95,000 jobs.
“This is a very dangerous one to start going down this pathway,” Ericksen said.
