Currently, Washington’s average gas price is $4.394 compared to the national average of $3.246, according to AAA
TJ Martinell
The Center Square Washington
The Senate Ways & Means Committee voted to advance a bill revising Washington state’s Clean Fuel Standard law amid concerns among critics who warn that the expedited schedule could jack up state gas prices even higher.
“The more aggressive schedule that this bill would impose would add another 40 cents by 2031,” Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, told the committee prior to Monday’s vote on Second Substitute House Bill 1409. “We’re not even sure where this new clean fuel is coming from or whether we can manufacture it or not.”
On March 10, the House of Representatives approved the bill on a 54-41 vote.
Currently, Washington’s average gas price is $4.394 compared to the national average of $3.246, according to AAA.
The Clean Fuel Standard law requires fuel suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels so that they are 20% below 2017 levels by 2034. The bill originally would alter that schedule to 45% below 2017 levels by Jan. 1, 2038. However, the bill has since been revised to allow the state Department of Ecology to set the goal even higher – 55% below 2017 levels by 2038, albeit with contingencies that must be met before.
There are various pathways for entities subject to the standard to comply with the law, such as providing or blending biofuels into fuel, or purchasing credits generated by fuel providers whose product is below the thresholds.
Wagoner proposed an amendment that would have removed the changes to the carbon intensity reduction schedule, arguing that it would be a “gentle approach so we can ease into this.”
His amendment was supported by Sen. Ron Muzzall, R-Oak Harbor, who said the Clean Fuel Standard is “a nice idea, but completely unattainable in the state of Washington. We don’t have the feedstock to support this. This completely depends on the Midwestern supply.”
The amendment was opposed by Ways & Means Chair June Robison, who said the bill was necessary to “bring us into alignment with other states on the West Coast.”
This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.
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