The survival of Washington state’s carbon market could come down to how much voters believe it’s raised gasoline prices.
On the ballot this November is the question of whether to repeal the state’s climate law. If a majority agrees, it would kill Washington’s cap-and-invest program, one of two economywide carbon pricing systems in the United States. The other is in California.
Supporters of the repeal effort say the regulation has hiked gasoline pump prices 50 cents a gallon. Defenders of the carbon market say new data shows it’s now closer to 10 cents a gallon. The true cost is hard to nail down, experts say — though currently, it likely falls closer to the 10 cents figure.
Politically, it may not matter. Most voters probably won’t spend much time researching prices, said Aseem Prakash, political science professor at the University of Washington. Instead, he said, it’s likely they’ll decide based on their own feelings about what they pay at the pump.
