Climate Coercion Meets Washington State Voters

Two ballot measures would roll back rules that raise energy prices

WSJ editorial. 

"Progressive climate dreams tend to crash and burn when voters are confronted with their real costs. That collision is playing out in Washington state this year in a pair of ballot measures that would repeal extreme climate policies.

Prop. 2066 would strike down large parts of rules designed to cripple natural-gas use by consumers. The first rule by the state Building Code Council in 2023 made it cost-prohibitive to put natural-gas appliances in new buildings. The Building Industry Association of Washington says the rule will raise the cost of a single-family home with gas appliances by $15,000-$20,000.

The ballot measure would also push back against a March law that lets Washington’s largest natural gas and electricity provider, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), shift the costs of meeting the state’s climate goals onto consumers. It also mandated that PSE by Jan. 1, 2027 file a plan to “achieve all cost-effective electrification of end uses currently served by natural gas.”

Both climate measures reveal the animus of the left to any fossil fuels, even natural gas that is reducing CO2 emissions as it replaces coal. Washington state contributes a mere 1.5% of all U.S. emissions, and the rules would have no effect on the climate.

But they would punish Washington residents already hurt by rising prices. Prop. 2066 attracted the second most signatures of any initiative petition in state history. An October poll by Cascade PBS and Elway Research found 51% of registered voters supported the initiative while 28% opposed it.

The second ballot initiative, Prop. 2117, would repeal the state’s carbon credit system and stop state agencies from implementing future cap-and-trade programs. Implemented in January 2023, the current system aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a radical schedule that requires a 95% cut below 1990 levels by 2050. Businesses that emit more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon a year are covered. They can purchase a diminishing supply of credits in quarterly auctions—the most recent of which had a price of $29.88 per credit.

The cap-and-trade auctions provided a $2 billion windfall for politicians, which explains why opponents of Prop. 2117 have poured more than $16 million into fighting it. But as in California, cap-and-trade is raising energy costs for consumers. In January the Association of Washington Businesses estimated that the program has raised the price of gasoline by $0.45 a gallon. Average Washington gas prices are the fourth highest in the nation at $4.05 a gallon.

Supporters of Prop. 2117 are being greatly outspent, and the Cascade PBS/Elway poll found it trailing 46%-31%. But the rest were undecided, and Washington voters have rejected costly climate measures in the past. They shot down ballot initiatives to create a carbon tax in 2016and an emissions fee in 2018.

Lawmakers in Olympia are living in an energy fantasy land in which they pretend they can bend the world’s climate at little cost. They’re deceiving the public on both counts. The state’s energy use is likely to double in 20 years, and that probably underestimates demand from artificial intelligence. Voters can send a message about reality by passing both ballot measures."