JOHN CURLEY

$1 trillion for ‘three thousandths of one degree’: ‘What Does It Cost?’ director warns of WA net-zero price tag

May 5, 2026, 5:55 PM | Updated: May 6, 2026, 11:17 am

Ken Peterson, the director of the documentary “What Does It Cost?” warned of the financial consequences of Washington and Oregon’s plan to eliminate fossil fuels and rely solely on zero-emission electricity sources, such as solar and wind, by 2045.

A net-zero plan with a $1 trillion price tag

Peterson told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio that the initiative comes with a hefty price tag for very little payoff. He said the effort will cost $1 trillion between Washington and Oregon, but said that’s not even the most shocking part.

“The astonishing thing, I guess even more astonishing than the trillion dollars, to me, was, what do we get for the trillion dollars? Because, of course, the rationale is ‘We’ve got to save the world here.’ And we’re going to combat and win over climate change. And if you use the EPA model, about what is the reduction of CO2 that this would entail, it turns out that it’s three thousandths of one degree centigrade by 2100,” Peterson explained.

A year has passed since the documentary came out, but Peterson said he hasn’t heard from lawmakers in Olympia or from the Department of Ecology.

The film can be viewed here.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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