Is Gov. Jay Inslee hiding plan that would hike gas prices $1 a gallon?

A new website covering the goings on in Olympia says Washington Governor Jay Inslee has an extreme environmental agenda that he is hiding from Washington residents.

Randy Pepple, with SHIFT Washington tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, they’ve uncovered documents that indicate the governor will impose a low-carbon fuel standard that could result in a significant increase in gas prices.

“The staff for the governor were saying he would impose in the first quarter of 2015, next year, through executive action, a low-carbon fuel standard, which Inslee’s own consultant said could raise gas prices by $1.17 a gallon,” said Pepple. View documents that SHIFT cites.

Before Monson and Pepple’s conversation Tuesday, the governor’s office had reached out to The Dori Monson Show regarding SHIFT’s reports, indicating the $1.17 SHIFT was suggesting wasn’t an accurate figure.

“The $1+ cost estimate has already been debunked by the exact same consultants the Republicans claim to get the number from,” said the email from the governor’s office. “That’s because there are a million different ways to design a clean fuel standard that would result in wildly different cost variables.”

Monson told Pepple the governor’s office also indicated to him that the governor was not considering a carbon tax. Monson read Pepple an excerpt of the gov’s office email that said:

“Shift’s portrayal of this as a ‘carbon tax’ on their home page shows either intentional deception or unintentional lack of understanding on the issue. A carbon tax is something completely different than a fuel standard so I’d assume they’d be ecstatic to know the governor is in no way proposing or considering such a thing.”

But Pepple said people shouldn’t be fooled and the governor and his staff are experts in deception, that they are deceiving the public and they know it.

“These emails show that,” said Pepple. “The $1.17 figure is from their own consultant. I didn’t make this number up. So they just have to run away from the fact, Dori, that they’re going to jack up gas prices as part of Inslee’s extreme environmental agenda.”

Monson said it would be a terrible move, politically, for the governor to raise gas prices $1.17 a gallon.

“Realistically, if he jacked gas tax a dollar a gallon […] he would be the most hated governor in America,” said Monson. “Politically, I don’t see any way he could do that without understanding the repercussions would be severe, even in as liberal a state as Washington is.”

But Pepple thinks Inslee is more concerned about leaving his stamp on this environmental issue than his political career.

“Jay Inslee says that it’s a moral imperative to address climate change, so he wants to go down in history as the person who steps up to address it,” said Pepple. “Whether or not he’d run again or whether an action like this would impact his next election is not his biggest concern. His biggest concern is his legacy, so to speak, that is why he’s going after these extreme policies.”