The Washington State Department of Ecology released the latest CO2 allowance results that set the price of the state’s carbon tax — the price jumped 16 percent in just one quarter. This is equivalent to about an 85 percent inflation rate over a year. …
That price equates to about 46 cents per gallon for gasoline and 56 cents per gallon for diesel. …
The big increase is not unexpected. The state’s CO2 tax is designed to increase steadily by continually restricting the number of allowances available for auction. As the supply of CO2 allowances declines, the price will continue to increase. These reductions will become more extreme. …
What do Washington state residents get for all this tax revenue? Not much environmental benefit. …
The data we do have show that the vast majority of the spending does nothing to reduce emissions. The Department of Ecology’s own report on climate spending indicates that most of the projects they fund have, in their words, no “quantifiable emissions reductions.”
Just two and a half years into the CO2 tax, the policy has become another tax rather than a meaningful or effective climate policy. The prices will continue to climb even as state spending continues to fail to produce meaningful environmental benefits.
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