Kent gas station rolled back the price of gas to $3.82 for 2 hours

The Washington chapter of Americans for Prosperity rolled back the price of gas to $3.82, the national average for a gallon of gas, at a Kent gas station. The event lasted for two hours Wednesday morning from 10 a.m. to noon, with cars lining up as early as an hour earlier.

This was a response to the state having the highest average gas prices in the country for the first time in history. The average price of a gallon of gas in the state of Washington is $5.06, according to AAA data. In King County, it jumps to $5.27.

More on Washington gas prices: State previously became the most expensive to buy gas for first time in history

The momentarily cheaper gas was at Jackson’s Shell Station, located at 22588 84th Avenue South, off State Route 167. Americans for Prosperity, an organization focused on state policy and government affairs, worked alongside Future 42, a Washington-based group that aims to help citizens make their voices heard and their actions count by communicating with lawmakers, in order to make this happen.

“Their cap-and-trade thing is ridiculous they said it was only going to go up five or 10 cents, and what’s it, 50 cents?” Jim Bateman, a Kent resident at the Jackson gas station, told KIRO Newsradio. “We already pay the highest gas tax almost in the country.”

“I have to commute, so I drive 40 minutes every day,” Cortney Mireles, another gas station customer, said. “Like one way is 40 minutes, so about an hour and a half, so it helps out a lot.”

Washington’s spike in gas prices has caused debate between politicians and state representatives. The Washington Policy Center (WPC), a statewide think tank, believes the state’s “cap and invest” emissions program, is the culprit for the surprisingly high prices.

“The very same program that Gov. Inslee famously promised would only be pennies is now evidently not the case,” Simon Sefzik, a former Washington state senator, told Jason Rantz on KTTH 770 AM. “People tend not to trust him and this is just another example of why we should not have taken his word for it.”

First beginning in 2023, the program sets a limit — or cap — on overall carbon emissions in the state and requires businesses to obtain allowances through units equal to their covered greenhouse gas emissions. These allowances can be obtained through quarterly auctions hosted by the Washington State Department of Ecology. They can also be bought and sold on a secondary market, similar to a stock or bond.

Approximately $1.4 billion in revenue was created through the state’s first three quarterly auctions and one Allowance Price Containment Reserve auction held so far in 2023.

More on Washington’s carbon auction: Event nets $500M, gas prices could jump

“There are growing indications that the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), the formal name of the tax on CO2 emissions, is broken,” Todd Myers, director of the WPC wrote. “Washington families, businesses, farmers, and others are paying far more but aren’t receiving any more environmental benefit. Once again, Washington politicians have chosen an extremely expensive and relatively ineffective policy.”

According to a graphic from Future 42 and published on The Center Square, approximately 44.3 cents per gallon are projected to be added by cap-and-trade policies on top of Washington’s 49.4 cents per gallon fuel tax, the fifth-highest in the nation. Myers of the WPC thinks the cap-and-invest program has cost drivers an extra “50 cents per gallon of gasoline and 61 cents per gallon for diesel.”