Affordable Fuel Washington: Tell lawmakers to vote no on carbon tax

Despite rejecting a carbon tax on the ballot last November, Washington residents could soon see a new 16-cents/gallon tax at the pump.

Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1110 passed out of the Washington State House of Representatives last month and is due for debate in the Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday.

Affordable Fuel Washington’s Dana Bieber said the bill’s low-carbon fuel standard closely resembles a California policy that is “ineffective, costly, and unworkable.”

“House Bill 1110 is just simply another low-carbon fuel standard modeled after the California project, and we know that it’s a failure, so why would we want to implement something like that here in the state of Washington?” she said.

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In California, gas has gone up 16 cents a gallon due to their low-carbon fuel standard; that figure is expected to rise to 46 cents in the next decade, Bieber said.

“We already have in Washington state the [second-highest] gas tax in the nation,” Bieber said. “And this would further exacerbate that problem, increasing the cost of gasoline.”

And while drivers would be paying the new carbon tax, the revenue collected would not go to improving the roads for them.

“We wouldn’t get anything for it other than the higher price of gasoline,” Bieber said.

Advocates for the low-carbon fuel standard maintain that it will help in the fight against climate change by reducing carbon emissions. However, Bieber said that the California carbon tax has not benefited the environment in any substantial way.

“It’s been hugely costly, but it has reduced emissions by just over 1 percent,” she said.

The program is supposed to encourage use of alternative fuels that emit less carbon, but in California, “there aren’t sufficient amounts of biofuels available to make the program work.”

Affordable Fuel Washington urges everyone to call call 833-261-6161 to ask their senators to vote no on House Bill 1110 before the bill goes to the Transportation Committee on Thursday. The above number will put voters in touch with Affordable Fuel Washington, which will connect them with their senator after they enter their zip code.

Bieber said that “time is of the essence” and voters need to “act quickly” if they want to prevent this new carbon tax from passing.

“This is a regressive cost to people who can least afford to pay more,” she said. “We all need to drive to work, we all have to take our kids to school, we all have to drive to the doctor. And this cost goes up for those who can least afford to pay more.”