Last week I published Washington State Gasoline Prices Are a Precursor to New York’s Future, which was a variation of an article published at Watts Up With That – Do Washington State Residents Know Why Their Gasoline Prices Are So High Now?. I also published Washington State Gasoline Prices and Public Perceptions that consolidated responses from Washington residents in the comments from the Watts Up With That article. All the articles addressed recent reports that gasoline prices in the State of Washington are now higher than California. The posts show that there is an obvious link between Washington’s new cap and invest program and gasoline prices. This post elevates a comment on my original article from Paul Fundingsland who offered his take.
Paul describes himself as “An Obsessive Climate Change Generalist”. Although he is a retired professor, he say he has no scientific or other degrees specific to these kinds of issues that can be cited as offering personal official expertise or credibility. What he does have is a two decades old avid, enthusiastic, obsession with all things Climate Change related.
His lightly edited comment follows.
Fundingsland Comment
In order to see why our gas prices are so high there are a few background issues that may help explain. First, Washington has no income tax other than the just instituted tax on Capital Gains over $250,000. So, the two main ways the Washington government uses to tax the populous is with a hefty gas tax, (the third highest in the nation) and a more than hefty liquor tax combined with the general state sales tax and other state taxes on marijuana etc.
Second, Washington State is basically a one-party state, much like California. So, the usual checks and balances with a two party system are very difficult to come by. Third, the current head of our one-party state, Governor Inslee, is an avowed climate change alarmist having even attempted to run for president on that issue in the last national election.
Our Governor actually thinks the world is watching what Washington state is doing to lower CO2 and that we will set the example for the rest of the world to follow. So, he exhibits obvious signs of delusion. Neither he nor basically anyone else of note in our legislative system has any idea what is going on in the rest of the world regarding energy, especially in the undeveloped world including China & India.
Our legislature is living in a national and international energy ignorant “bubble” and being led by a likable but oblivious energy ignorant crusading climate change alarmist. This is not a desirable circumstance for rational energy policy making decisions.
The legislature was bright enough to realize they couldn’t get a straight forward transparent “climate” tax passed to deal with real and projected environmental issues. Instead under the guises of combating climate change, the legislature came up with “Tax and Invest”. Hey, maybe that qualifies us to get some of that 350 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” federal money.
The Washington legislature connived up this ridiculous convoluted regressive tax scam pretending that it is going to help show the world how to reduce CO2 thus saving the planet from computer modeled future bad weather Armageddon. Never mind that this kind of tax is designed to place a specifically heavier financial load on the middle, lower and fixed income classes.
In the real world this “Tax and Invest” scam is nothing more than a regressive tax and redistribution scheme of the taxed monies supposedly for environmental benefits. Although many of these environmental projects are certainly worthy of mitigating, taxing the CO 2 emitters who then tax us after running it through who knows how many levels of paid government bureaucrats to get whatever funds are left for environmental mitigation is definitely a torturous and wasteful way of attempting to achieve fruitful goals.
At the end of the day, the CO2 emitters get to keep on emitting. It just costs them more. So of course, they just pass along the costs to us. In this case at the gas pump. “Climate Change” is thus being utilized in Washington State in a covert way to extract more “tax” money from the state populace.
And if that isn’t bad enough, the state has a sordid record of keeping its word on where even issue specific referendum voted on and “earmarked” money will be spent, let alone legislated monies. The taxed monies have an embarrassing history of disappearing from their original approved referendum or legislated intention and finding their way into the general fund.
On a state level, now the folks who pushed the “tax and Invest” scheme are saying they didn’t think or weren’t advised the gas price would go up that much. Maybe a nickel or so. Obviously, these clowns did not have a clue how this was going to work. But gee, are they ever happy about all that money they got rolling in at the constituent’s expense. As a senior citizen on a fixed income, I’m not happy about that. Some of that “tax & invest” is my money.
The Washington State “tax and Invest” scheme is a convoluted regressive tax hurting those in the middle, fixed, and lower income brackets the most. It will have zero effect on stopping the climate from changing. It’s a state tax shell game preying on the less affluent.
It’s safe to assume there is not a single legislator or bureaucrat from the Governor on down in the state of Washington who can tell you how much less warming this ridiculous, expensive counterproductive scheme will achieve.
Comments
This does not portend well for New York. The positive thing relative to Washington is that our Governor Hochul is not an “avowed climate change alarmist” She is just going with the flow of the Progressive climate change alarmists and grifters in the Legislature. New York taxes everything that moves so that is a difference with Washington. The root of the problem is that New York is also a one-party state without checks and balances just like Washington.
I worry because just about everything else described here is similar New York. Both states think they can lead by example for the rest of the world to follow without a thought that if their poorly designed transition plans fail that they will set an example for the rest of the world that they did not intend. Both states are scamming their citizens with a regressive tax masquerading as something else.
I want to highlight one point Fundingsland made: “At the end of the day, the CO2 emitters get to keep on emitting. It just costs them more.” In my opinion that is exactly what has happened with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative electric utility cap-and-invest program. The affected sources treat the added cost just like a tax. In order to displace fossil-fired electric generators it is necessary to build zero-emissions generating resources. The point is that affected generators are not developing those alternative resources to replace their units. That is not their business model so someone else will have to build those resources. I suspect that this will also be the case for all affected sources in the New York program.
The crony capitalists who are building the replacement resources will only do so if the money is right The unaddressed dynamic is the cost necessary to attract those investments relative to what the public will accept. Authors Danny Cullenward and David Victor explain in Making Climate Policy Work that the ultimate costs for the net-zero transition are likely higher than the public will accept so smokescreen programs like the Washington and New York cap-and-invest scams are used to delay the inevitable reckoning.
I hope that New Yorkers can be educated to understand what is coming. The Hochul administration will come up with models and analyses that will claim, just like Washington did, that the costs for implementation will be minimal. The real costs will be much higher, just like Washington is finding out and just like the experience of every other jurisdiction that has tried to use wind and solar to replace fossil-fired generation. If New Yorkers are told what is coming and why, then it might be possible to hold the politicians pushing this nonsense accountable.
My thanks to Paul for providing such an exhaustive and illustrative response to my request for feedback from Washington State residents.
Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York 