Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy files initiative to put a price on pollution in 2018

Fol­low­ing the Leg­is­la­ture’s fail­ure to reach agree­ment on a plan to put a price on pol­lu­tion in Wash­ing­ton State, the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Ener­gy (of which NPI is a mem­ber) has announced that it is mov­ing for­ward with plans to qual­i­fy an ini­tia­tive to the Novem­ber bal­lot that would impose a fee on emissions.

“Today, diverse con­stituen­cies across the state rep­re­sent­ing work­ing fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties of col­or, envi­ron­men­tal and clean ener­gy advo­cates, health pro­fes­sion­als, busi­ness­es, and faith orga­ni­za­tions have joint­ly filed an ini­tia­tive to pro­tect Washington’s land, air, and water and move us towards a strong, healthy clean ener­gy econ­o­my,” said Alliance lead­ers in a statement.

“This ini­tia­tive is Washington’s chance for all of us to have a share in a clean­er health­i­er future and build a bet­ter econ­o­my that works for every­one,” the state­ment went on to explain. “It would invest in clean ener­gy infra­struc­ture like wind and solar, healthy forests, and clean water, cre­at­ing thou­sands of good pay­ing jobs across the state while cut­ting pollution.”

“Today’s action is a first step towards putting an ini­tia­tive on the bal­lot in Novem­ber. Wash­ing­ton com­mu­ni­ties thrive when they have clean air to breathe, safe water to drink, and an econ­o­my root­ed in sus­tain­able local jobs.”

“This is a state where diverse com­mu­ni­ties and busi­ness­es, large and small, take respon­si­bil­i­ty to care for our health and environment.”

“From the air we breathe to wors­en­ing fires and floods, we know pol­lu­tion and cli­mate change affect us every day. Dirty ener­gy has hurt our health and our cli­mate for years and it’s time to start clean­ing up the mess. Wash­ing­ton vot­ers, com­mu­ni­ties, and busi­ness­es are demand­ing strong and effec­tive action on cli­mate pol­lu­tion and today’s fil­ing starts the process for the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton to act.”

NPI research sug­gests the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton are ready to act.

Near­ly three in five Wash­ing­ton vot­ers agree it’s time for the state to put a price on pol­lu­tion to fund a social­ly respon­si­ble tran­si­tion to clean ener­gy, accord­ing to a sur­vey con­duct­ed last June by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling for NPI.

59% of like­ly 2018 vot­ers sur­veyed agree that Wash­ing­ton State should reduce emis­sions of air pol­lu­tants like car­bon diox­ide and methane by levy­ing a pol­lu­tion tax and using the rev­enue raised to invest in elec­tric trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture and renew­able ener­gy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal.

40% dis­agreed, while 1% were not sure.

Respon­dents were asked:

Wash­ing­ton State has com­mit­ted to meet­ing the goals of the Paris cli­mate accords as a par­tic­i­pant of the recent­ly-formed Unit­ed States Cli­mate Alliance. Do you strong­ly agree, some­what agree, some­what dis­agree or strong­ly dis­agree with the fol­low­ing state­ment: Wash­ing­ton State should levy a tax on pol­lu­tion to fund projects that would reduce harm­ful emis­sions plus accel­er­ate our tran­si­tion to elec­tric vehi­cles and renew­able ener­gy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal?

Answers were as follows:

• Agree: 59%
  • Strong­ly agree: 43%
  • Some­what agree: 16%
• Dis­agree: 40%
  • Some­what dis­agree: 12%
  • Strong­ly dis­agree: 28%
• Not sure: 1%

The ques­tion we asked Wash­ing­ton vot­ers to respond to last June is essen­tial­ly the Alliance’s desired pol­i­cy in a nut­shell. All respon­dents par­tic­i­pat­ed by land­line, so we think the result may under­state the actu­al lev­el of sup­port for this idea.

(Many peo­ple no longer have land­lines — this is espe­cial­ly true of mil­len­ni­als. We found that a major­i­ty of vot­ers from ages eigh­teen through forty-five strong­ly agree with the idea of putting a price on pol­lu­tion to raise mon­ey for a just tran­si­tion to a clean ener­gy future, com­pared to 43% overall.)

Tech­ni­cal­ly speak­ing, the Alliance has opt­ed to make its pol­lu­tion price a fee as opposed to a tax. The objec­tive is to ensure that the rev­enue it rais­es goes to projects and pri­or­i­ties that will reduce our depen­dence on fos­sil fuels. This way, the rev­enue the ini­tia­tive rais­es goes to its intend­ed purpose.

NPI sup­ports going to the bal­lot this year with the kind of pol­i­cy the Alliance has been dis­cussing and devel­op­ing these past few years. We actu­al­ly want­ed to see the Alliance qual­i­fy a mea­sure to the 2016 bal­lot that would have pro­vid­ed vot­ers with an alter­na­tive to I‑732. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, that did not happen.

Here is a sum­ma­ry of the ini­tia­tive pro­vid­ed by the Alliance.

Summary of the Protect Washington Act

Intent

The intent of this act is to pro­tect Wash­ing­ton for our chil­dren, our grand­chil­dren, and future gen­er­a­tions by quick­ly and effec­tive­ly reduc­ing pol­lu­tion and address­ing its neg­a­tive impacts.

Invest­ments to Clean Up Pollution

Invest­ments will accel­er­ate Wash­ing­ton State’s tran­si­tion to clean ener­gy, increase the resilien­cy of the state’s waters and forests to the impacts of cli­mate change, and reduce the impacts of cli­mate change on communities.

• 70% to Clean Air and Clean Energy 
  • Invest­ments in job-cre­at­ing projects and invest­ments that yield ver­i­fi­able reduc­tions in car­bon [diox­ide] pol­lu­tion, includ­ing solar, wind and oth­er renew­able ener­gy; clean trans­porta­tion options; ener­gy effi­cien­cy; car­bon seques­tra­tion in nat­ur­al resources like for­est, farm and marine landscapes.
  • A min­i­mum of 15% of the account will assist low-income res­i­dents in the tran­si­tion to a clean ener­gy economy.
  • Income, ben­e­fit, retrain­ing, and relo­ca­tion sup­port for fos­sil fuel work­ers that are affect­ed by the tran­si­tion to a clean ener­gy economy.
• 25% to Clean Water and Healthy Forests 
  • Invest­ments to increase the resilien­cy of the state’s waters and forests to the impacts of cli­mate change, including:
  • Restore and pro­tect estu­ar­ies, fish­eries and marine shore­line habi­tats; pre­pare for sea lev­el rise; address ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion; reduce flood risk; increase sus­tain­able sup­ply of water; and improve infra­struc­ture for treat­ing stormwa­ter, improve resilience to wild­fires, improve for­est health and reduce vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to insect infestation.
• 5% to Healthy Communities 
  • Invest­ments to pre­pare com­mu­ni­ties for chal­lenges caused by cli­mate change and to ensure that the impacts of cli­mate change are not dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly borne by cer­tain pop­u­la­tions, includ­ing: enhanc­ing com­mu­ni­ty pre­pared­ness and aware­ness around wild­fires; fire sup­pres­sion for trib­al com­mu­ni­ties; relo­ca­tion of trib­al com­mu­ni­ties impact­ed by sea lev­el rise; edu­ca­tion pro­grams to expand aware­ness of the impacts of cli­mate change; and com­mu­ni­ty capac­i­ty grants.
• Of the above, a min­i­mum of ten per­cent of state expen­di­tures must be used for projects endorsed by the gov­ern­ing body of a fed­er­al­ly rec­og­nized tribe.

Fee on Pollution

A pol­lu­tion reduc­tion fee will be levied and col­lect­ed on large emit­ters based on the car­bon con­tent of fos­sil fuels and elec­tric­i­ty, includ­ing import­ed elec­tric­i­ty, sold or used with­in this state.

Begin­ning Jan­u­ary 1, 2020, the fee is equal to $15.00 per met­ric ton of car­bon con­tent. Begin­ning Jan­u­ary 1, 2021, the fee increas­es by $2.00 per year until the state’s 2035 green­house gas reduc­tion goal is met and the state’s emis­sions are on a tra­jec­to­ry that indi­cates that com­pli­ance with the state’s 2050 goal is likely.

In order to pre­vent emis­sions and jobs leak­age out of state, fos­sil fuel and elec­tric­i­ty sold to and used by ener­gy-inten­sive and trade-exposed busi­ness­es will be exempt from the fee.

Pol­lu­tion and Health Action Areas

In order to mit­i­gate the effects of pol­lu­tion and the health impacts of cli­mate change on high­ly- impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties, the Depart­ment of Health shall des­ig­nate pol­lu­tion and health action areas.

A min­i­mum of 35 per­cent of state expen­di­tures must be used for invest­ments that pro­vide direct, mean­ing­ful, and assured ben­e­fits to pol­lu­tion and health action areas with a min­i­mum of ten per­cent of state expen­di­tures being locat­ed in these communities.

Pub­lic Over­sight and Gov­ern­ment Accountability

A Pub­lic Over­sight Board will over­see the imple­men­ta­tion of this ini­tia­tive, sup­port­ed by invest­ment pan­els that will rec­om­mend effec­tive, effi­cient invest­ments to meet the goals of the Act.

The Joint Leg­isla­tive Audit and Review Com­mit­tee and the Over­sight board shall review and report on the time­li­ness, effi­cien­cy and effec­tive­ness of imple­men­ta­tion of the Act.

The ini­tia­tive has not yet received a num­ber or a bal­lot title, but will soon. After the bal­lot title is final­ized, the Alliance intends to launch a sig­na­ture dri­ve to col­lect 350,000+ sig­na­tures and rebrand itself as the “Yes on Ini­tia­tive XXXX” campaign.