Harger: Portland pays $5.19. Seattle pays $5.74. The difference has a name: the Climate Commitment Act
Apr 29, 2026, 6:42 AM | Updated: 1:38 pm
Seattle gas prices hit $5.74 a gallon overnight, a new all-time record according to AAA. The national average is $4.23. We are paying $1.51 more than the average American.
Look next door. Idaho is paying $4.40. Same Middle East conflict. Same president. Different governor. Different policy.
Oregon is even more instructive than Idaho. Same coast. Same grid. Same progressive politics. No Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The statewide average there is $5.12. The Portland Metro is $5.19. Seattle is $5.74. That 55-cent gap between Seattle and Portland is almost exactly what the CCA adds to every gallon. Oregon didn’t do that to its drivers. Washington did.
The Iran war is real. The Strait of Hormuz is blocked and crude prices are surging. Nobody in Olympia caused that.
But Washington drivers were already starting from a hole. The CCA adds an estimated 52 to 57 cents to every gallon. The state gas tax adds another 55 cents. Before Iran fired a single shot, we were already carrying a massive surcharge.
The problem the CCA was built to solve
The Climate Commitment Act is Olympia’s answer to a problem. Before we argue about whether the answer works, we should understand the problem itself.
The Department of Ecology (DOE) just released its 27-page interim greenhouse gas inventory report. The data runs through 2022. The CCA did not begin until 2023. Two separate timelines, and that separation matters.
What the pre-CCA data shows is what decades of Washington climate spending actually bought. Todd Myers at the Washington Policy Center compared Washington’s per-capita emissions with those of every other state. We have declined about 32% since 2000. That ranks 25th nationally. Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee all did better. None of them spent billions trying. None of them has our hydropower advantage.
Washington spent billions, missed its own targets, and finished middle of the pack behind states that barely tried.
Total statewide emissions in 2022 were 96.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The DOE report said it is 3.2% higher than the 1990 baseline that Washington was required to meet by 2020. We missed our own deadline.
The one bright spot was the electricity sector emissions falling 7.1%. The DOE report itself explains why: We had a great snow year. Heavy snowpack filled the dams. Snow did more for our emissions than state policy did. Snow.
This is the failure the CCA was designed to fix.
Why the CCA won’t fix Washington state emissions math
DOE looks at that 2022 data and says, “Be patient.” The CCA is the heavy hitter. Tax carbon, generate billions, and we finally buy our way to the goal.
The math doesn’t cooperate.
Washington’s 2030 target is 45% below 1990 levels, which works out to roughly 51.2 million metric tons. We are currently at 96. Myers calculated that hitting the 2030 goal requires emissions to drop 7.4% every year. As he put it, that means more than one COVID-scale reduction every two years. In other words, Washington would need to cut emissions by more than we did during the entire COVID shutdown, when planes were grounded, offices were empty, and nobody was driving anywhere. Then do it again. Every two years until 2030. While the economy is running normally.
The CCA is not going to do that.
And even if Washington pulled off a miracle, the state produces less than two-tenths of 1% of global carbon emissions. China opens a new coal plant almost every week. We are on a strict diet while China orders seconds, and the planet does not notice the difference.
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How Ecology got sued for this data, then bragged about releasing it
Myers, along with Representative Mary Dye and Senator Nikki Torres, had to sue DOE to get this data released. After spending taxpayer dollars fighting the release in court, Ecology published the report and bragged it was ahead of schedule. Myers pointed out the original statutory deadline was the end of 2024, though a 2025 revision to the law muddies those waters.
As we reported Tuesday, the 2022 price record was set before the CCA existed. Today’s record comes with a surcharge; the last one didn’t.
When Sound Transit opened the Federal Way light rail extension last November, CEO Dow Constantine told us it was early and under budget. It was actually over a year late and over budget. They moved the goalposts. Ecology is running the same play. You do not get to be three months behind on your mortgage, make one payment, and tell the bank you are ahead of schedule.
Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller called the 2022 data evidence of Washington’s leadership on climate change. Twenty-fifth in the nation is a funny kind of leadership.
Myers tracked this exact promise back through years of DOE reports. In 2018, the message was that emissions were up, but help was on the way. In 2017, our carbon reduction strategies were beginning to pay off.
Every year, Olympia says wait. Every year, the data says it didn’t work.
What Washington’s climate policy costs working families
Food prices are up nearly 24% since 2020, according to the USDA. Rent in Tacoma averages around $1,700 a month. And Olympia layered a climate surcharge onto gas, electricity, and heating costs on top of all of it.
A single mom in Tacoma, working two jobs in an old Corolla, cannot afford a Tesla. She is not choosing to drive. She has to drive. To the hospital where she works nights. To the school where she drops her kid off at 6:45 a.m. before her first shift starts. The CCA and Washington fuel taxes added $1.30 to every gallon of that commute. Instead of saving the planet, she is subsidizing a program that finished No. 25.
Her neighbor works in construction in Renton. His truck gets 17 miles per gallon on a good day. He does not have a remote work option. He cannot carpool with 200 pounds of tools. The CCA is not a minor inconvenience to him. It is hundreds of dollars a year that he does not have.
The retired couple in Auburn on a fixed income did not get a raise when electricity rates went up. They turned the heat down.
None of these people are opposed to clean air. None of them want dirtier water. They are just trying to make rent.
Whatever we squeeze out of higher gas bills and canceled road trips, China wipes away before the press release hits the wire. A new coal plant fires up there every week or two. The planet doesn’t notice Washington’s efforts.
Drivers everywhere are getting crushed by the Iran war right now. That’s real and it’s not Olympia’s fault. But in most states, that’s the whole bill. Here, it lands on top of a surcharge your legislators already decided you could handle.
Turns out you can’t. Nobody asked.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
