Article by Meghan Anderson
The League of Women Voters of Washington recently announced its opposition to Initiative 2117, and three other regressive initiatives, which will appear on the November ballot.
The League is a nonpartisan political organization which encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government. The League acts in support of, or in opposition to, selected governmental issues that its members have studied. It does not support or oppose candidates or political parties.
Initiative 2117, if passed, would prohibit all state agencies, counties, and cities from implementing any type of carbon tax credit trading and would repeal the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) made law in 2021, and enacted in 2023. The CCA created a market-based cap-and-invest program designed to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. It works in two ways:
First, climate pollution is capped and reduced. The largest polluters in Washington state are required to purchase allowances for their pollution and over time, the cap on pollution goes down. This is the “cap” in cap-and-invest.
Second, the state then reinvests payments from polluters back into communities. CCA grant funding helps Washingtonians switch to climate-friendly energy options. This is the “invest” in cap-and-invest.
Repealing the CCA means Washington State would not achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set in 2020 and large polluters can continue to pollute without paying anything. The state would lose a significant funding source for implementing programs which support clean transportation, buildings, energy development and more.Proponents may claim that Washington gas prices are higher as a result of the CCA. Careful review of the facts indicates that gas pricing reflects crude oil prices. For example, the highest price in the past 3 years was in June 2022, when the price of a gallon of gas reached $5.53. At the same time, crude oil prices spiked from around $70 to over $120 per barrel. All this happened 6 months prior to the beginning of the CCA program in 2023, indicating the cap-and-invest program had little to do with gas pricing. Gas and crude prices routinely fluctuate.
Locally, Ellensburg and Kittitas County have already benefited from CCA funding. Since the auctions began in 2023 for large polluters, Ellensburg has received more than $5.1 million. These grants include transition planning for Central Transit, rate support for utility customers, and a $4.1 million Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program grant for the utility.
These monies have been awarded to our region in only the first 18 months of the CCA program, which is active until 2050. Imagine all the other grants, over the next 25 years, the county and city can receive if the CCA program remains law. If the program is repealed, that funding all disappears, and large polluters pay nothing.
Please join the League in voting “No” on I-2117 in November. We need to keep climate legislation in place and keep Washington communities moving toward a clean energy future for all.
The State League of Women Voters opposes all four 2024 ballot initiatives as bad policy. Learn more about the League’s position at lwvwa.org.
This article is co-published by the Ellensburg Daily Record Newspaper on October 5, 2024. League of Women Voters member, Meghan Anderson, recently retired from an architectural career. She is also a member of Kittitas Climate Advocates who study and advocate for local climate action.