Climate energy policy: Painful but necessary transition - The Seattle Times

Climate energy policy: Painful but necessary transition | The Seattle Times

Re: “ On the road between ‘hogwash and baloney’ on WA’s high gas prices” [June 24, Local News]:

Thank you to columnist Danny Westneat for illuminating the debate on the effect of our state’s new climate energy policy on gasoline prices. Westneat cites a recent Seattle Times article that summarized estimates that the new climate law has resulted in approximately a $0.50 increase in fuel prices [“WA gas prices now highest in U.S.; some experts point to new climate legislation, June 21, Local News].

These numbers are consistent with a study of 10 federal carbon tax proposals by the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, which found that a $145/ton carbon tax would raise the U.S. price of gasoline by $1.27 per gallon. Washington state’s new law is equivalent to a tax of about $50/carbon ton, so a gas price increase of roughly $0.50 is plausible.

Acknowledging impacts on consumers, including myself, I strongly support our state’s new climate energy policy. Gov. Jay Inslee and our state Department of Ecology should not have been surprised by the impacts “at the pump.” As Westneat states, “ … when you charge fossil fuel companies, they pass those costs on …” For the new policy to change behavior, both producers and consumers of emission-producing fuels need to feel some pain in their pocketbooks. This reality is an underlying premise of the new climate energy policy.

Douglas Conrad, Ph.D., Seattle, Professor Emeritus (retired, University of Washington)