Progressive Ideas We Need: Funding a clean energy future through pollution penalties

Editor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. 

It is a brand new year for us in the Pacif­ic North­west, with new chal­lenges, a new pres­i­dent, and a new polit­i­cal landscape.

The rather unortho­dox pol­i­tics of the past twelve months has got us chat­ter­ing away — because of how much we know we had ‘yet to do’ a year ago, and now it feels like the momen­tum is neg­a­tive. In an iron­ic twist on our cho­sen moniker, a piv­ot to proac­tive, pro­gres­sive pol­i­cy is imped­ed by frus­trat­ing­ly stub­born con­ver­sa­tions about issues which should be settled.

The response so far to the 2012 McCleary deci­sion of the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court has all the hall­marks of grand­stand­ing and polit­i­cal games­man­ship that run direct­ly counter to the Wash­ing­ton­ian polit­i­cal ethos.

As read­ers know, the Court has held that the state has not been meet­ing its para­mount duty due to hav­ing failed to prop­er­ly fund­ing our pub­lic schools. The glacial pace of progress is weigh­ing heav­i­ly on our pub­lic consciousness.

It was sim­ple enough for our Framers to see the val­ue and neces­si­ty of a well edu­cat­ed cit­i­zen­ry, and yet, one hun­dred and twen­ty-eight years lat­er, we’re strug­gling to actu­al­ly invest in our schools, because we’re chained to a regres­sive, upside-down, unsus­tain­able tax code the Leg­is­la­ture won’t fix.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the push­back on a hard switch to renew­able ener­gy sources has pre­vent­ed us from act­ing more swift­ly to address the dam­age to our climate.

In a sense it feels like we’re still liv­ing in the mid 1990s, when right wing Repub­li­cans were still dis­miss­ing cli­mate sci­ence and when it was com­mon­ly known as glob­al warm­ing. Head in the sand reac­tionar­ies have been giv­en legit­i­ma­cy they don’t deserve, and pro­vid­ed with a plat­form for spread­ing their mis­in­for­ma­tion.

Recent plans to address the accel­er­at­ing prob­lem have gone nowhere, includ­ing Gov­er­nor Inslee’s Pol­lu­tion Account­abil­i­ty Act of 2015, and Car­bon­WA’s poor­ly thought out Ini­tia­tive 732, defeat­ed by vot­ers last year.

Gov­er­nor Inslee, how­ev­er, has returned unde­terred with a new bud­get pro­pos­al aimed at tax­ing the largest car­bon pol­luters, and using that mon­ey to invest more in resources and staffing for schools. Along with a pro­posed cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy, this plan would pro­vide schools with coun­selors and nurs­es, and the train­ing to go along with sup­port­ing staff.

An out­line of the bud­get explains:

The car­bon tax would take effect in fis­cal year 2018, gen­er­at­ing about $1.9 bil­lion in the next bien­ni­um. About half the rev­enue gen­er­at­ed by the car­bon tax would be direct­ed to the state’s edu­ca­tion needs.

The rest would be rein­vest­ed in clean ener­gy and trans­porta­tion projects to low­er con­sumer fuel bills and reduce green­house gas emis­sions. Rev­enue will also sup­port major projects to build water infra­struc­ture and improve for­est health.

Some funds will off­set tax­es to busi­ness­es and low-income house­holds espe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble to increased ener­gy costs.

To no one’s sur­prise, this idea has received a cool recep­tion from Sen­ate Repub­li­cans, who take their cues from dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman.

But Inslee’s will­ing­ness to put a pol­lu­tion tax on the table deserves to be cel­e­brat­ed. This is a well thought-out pro­pos­al that deserves to be vot­ed on in the Leg­is­la­ture. And if Sen­ate Repub­li­cans won’t allow a vote, then we must give the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton an oppor­tu­ni­ty to say yes at the ballot.

Pro­gres­sives take note: we will suc­ceed if and when we are able to com­pelling­ly offer a val­ue-based frame­work for pol­i­cy, one that is con­sis­tent, applic­a­ble, and con­sid­er­ate of the enor­mi­ty of the task at hand.

Edu­ca­tion and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion are the keys to a pros­per­ous future here in the North­west — let’s act to ensure the next gen­er­a­tion inher­its a region that is  green­er and more pros­per­ous than the one we inher­it­ed. Let’s enact a pol­lu­tion tax to fund a just tran­si­tion to the clean ener­gy future we need.