Seattle gas prices hit $5.74 a gallon overnight, a new all-time record according to AAA. The national average is $4.23. We are paying $1.51 more than the average American.
Look next door. Idaho is paying $4.40. Same Middle East conflict. Same president. Different governor. Different policy.
Oregon is even more instructive than Idaho. Same coast. Same grid. Same progressive politics. No Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The statewide average there is $5.12. The Portland Metro is $5.19. Seattle is $5.74. That 55-cent gap between Seattle and Portland is almost exactly what the CCA adds to every gallon. Oregon didn’t do that to its drivers. Washington did. …
… The CCA adds an estimated 52 to 57 cents to every gallon. … Before Iran fired a single shot, we were already carrying a massive surcharge. …
The Department of Ecology (DOE) just released its 27-page interim greenhouse gas inventory report. The data runs through 2022. The CCA did not begin until 2023. Two separate timelines, and that separation matters.
What the pre-CCA data shows is what decades of Washington climate spending actually bought … We have declined about 32% since 2000. That ranks 25th nationally. Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee all did better. None of them spent billions trying. None of them has our hydropower advantage.
Washington spent billions, missed its own targets, and finished middle of the pack behind states that barely tried. …
Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller called the 2022 data evidence of Washington’s leadership on climate change. Twenty-fifth in the nation is a funny kind of leadership. …
What Washington’s climate policy costs working families …
A single mom in Tacoma, working two jobs in an old Corolla, cannot afford a Tesla. She is not choosing to drive. She has to drive. To the hospital where she works nights. To the school where she drops her kid off at 6:45 a.m. before her first shift starts. The CCA and Washington fuel taxes added $1.30 to every gallon of that commute. Instead of saving the planet, she is subsidizing a program that finished No. 25.
Her neighbor works in construction in Renton. His truck gets 17 miles per gallon on a good day. He does not have a remote work option. He cannot carpool with 200 pounds of tools. The CCA is not a minor inconvenience to him. It is hundreds of dollars a year that he does not have.