(The Center Square) – With gas prices in the Evergreen State contending with California as the most expensive in the country, one Washington nonprofit is teaming up with a national think tank to highlight the impact Washington’s cap-and-trade legislation, which went into effect at the beginning of the year, is having on the price at the pump.
The Washington chapter of Americans for Prosperity and Washington-based Future 42 will be rolling back the price of gas to $3.82, the national average for a gallon of gas, at a gas station in Kent, located in King County, on Wednesday. The average price of a gallon of gas in King County is $5.27, according to AAA data.
The event is set to take place from 10 a.m. to noon, at Jackson’s Shell Station, located at 22588 – 84th Avenue South, right off State Route 167.
The Climate Commitment Act, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2021, mandates emitters to obtain “emissions allowances” equal to their covered greenhouse gas emissions. Similar to stocks and bonds, these allowances can be obtained through quarterly auctions hosted by the Department of Ecology.
Three quarterly auctions and one Allowance Price Containment Reserve auction held so far this year have brought in more than $1.4 billion in revenue.
“The reason why anybody does a cap-and-trade is you want to drive the cost up. The whole purpose of cap-and-trade is to drive the price up,” Future 42 President Dann Mead Smith told The Center Square in a phone conversation. “They admitted that when they were debating the law; it’s just costing them a lot more than they thought it would.”
A graphic included with a press release announcing the gas rollback event highlights the currently projected 44.3 cents per gallon added by cap-and-trade policies. This is on top of Washington’s 49.4 cents per gallon fuel tax, the fifth-highest in the nation according to Tax Foundation data.
Environmental policy expert Todd Myers at the free market Washington Policy Center think tank puts impact at between 47 cents to 53 cents per gallon.
Americans for Prosperity and Future 42 plan to split the cost of reimbursing Jackson’s Shell Station for the difference in price between their usual sale price and the roll back price.
