… Officials at the state Department of Commerce revealed this week that predictions about the effectiveness of Washington’s Climate Commitment Act have missed the mark. Expanding on the “missed the mark” characterization, if this were a basketball game, the shot would have flown beyond the hoop and hit a spectator in the upper deck. Carbon reductions from projects touted by the department have amounted to 4 percent of their original estimates.
This follows projections about the Climate Commitment Act’s effect on gas prices. “This is going to have a minimal impact, if any, pennies,” then-Gov. Jay Inslee said when the act was passed in 2021. Instead, reasonable estimates now say the legislation has increased prices at the pump by at least 25 cents per gallon. …
If voters are to continue supporting carbon-reduction efforts, they must have confidence in the impact and the costs of the initiative. And should some of the money be diverted for other uses, such as transportation or assisting lower-income families, those expenses also should be carefully disseminated and evaluated.
…[L]egislators should not be shy about evaluating the impact of the act on producers and consumers; as with any law, there likely is room for improvement. Assessing that, however, will require accurate information from state officials.
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