Opinion: Pain at the pump is the point!

Nancy Churchill says Washington state Democrats want your tax dollars and they’re not afraid to use ‘strategic misrepresentation’ to fool you

Nancy Churchill
Dangerous Rhetoric

Washington’s fuel prices are currently the highest in the nation. According to Kate Stone in MyNorthwest.com, “For the first time ever, Washington is the most expensive state in the country to buy gas. According to AAA, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is averaging $4.96 statewide. Mid-grade gas is around $5.16/gallon, and premium averages $5.36.”

Republican legislators have correctly pointed out that they told us the Governor and his lobbyists were lying about the impact of the carbon tax that was euphemistically call “cap-and-invest”. On twitter, Washington Senate Republicans asked, “Remember when gas was under $3 a gallon? We do. Legislative Democrats and @GovInslee increased gas prices (SB 5126 in 2021) and wants a mileage tax (HB 1832). Republicans defeated the mileage tax for 2023 and want lower gas prices (SB 5756).”

Harming consumers AND the economy

“At Washington’s May 31 auction, allowances to pollute one metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions sold for nearly double the cost of those sold in California and Quebec’s latest auction. After Washington’s first auction, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association said it was ‘unnecessarily expensive’ and would harm consumers and the economy. The Oil Price Information Service estimates the state’s new carbon regulations now tally a fee of about 50 cents per gallon of gasoline — up from 37 cents per gallon in the first quarter of the year.”

The new Democratic tax on carbon dioxide emissions went into effect on January 1. The program “limits the amount of carbon dioxide a business or organization can produce, requiring companies that emit greenhouse gasses over that limit to purchase allowances at quarterly auctions.”

The first two auctions for carbon credits have raked in a stunning amount of revenue for the state. The March auction raked in $300 million from Washington businesses. The May 31 auction saw 8.6 million allowances sold at $56.01 per allowance, raising $480.5 million.

Roads will improve, right?

Does this new revenue go to improve roads and infrastructure? No, don’t be silly. According to the Seattle Times, it will be doled out to local governments for “climate change projects.” “About $50 million of the $2 billion in carbon-auction revenues lawmakers budgeted over the next two years will go to incentives for lower-income residents to purchase or lease electric vehicles.”

“Another $40 million will be available for cities and counties to start planning for climate change. That might include reducing sprawl, creating more pedestrian-oriented areas, distributing more parks and tree canopy to be more resilient to climate change and building out housing near transit.”

So the next time you fill up at the pump, you can rest easy knowing that you’re paying extra in order to help someone else to buy an overpriced EV, or to encourage local governments to create transit center slums and mess up traffic flow by installing pedestrian-oriented areas. The cap-and-tax auction is centralized planning at its finest.

Strategic misrepresentation

During the public debates over SB 5126 in 2021, Governor Inslee promised Washington residents the carbon-pricing program would have little to no impact on the consumer. “This is going to have a minimal impact, if any. Pennies. We are talking about pennies,” Inslee said. ‘Potentially, not all of this would be passed off to the consumer, and what they would [pass on] would be pennies.”

In an opinion piece published in the Seattle times, Danny Westneat pointed out, “Well, now we know the impact has not been minimal. Somewhere on the road between hogwash and baloney, Washington ran into reality. Which is that when you charge fossil fuel companies, they pass those costs on and gas prices go up by an amount proportional to that fee.”

Westneat continued, “Of course carbon fees increase the price of gas. That’s the point! It’s supposed to ratchet up the cost of gas, so that over time both businesses and consumers are under market pressures to find ways to use less of it.”

Westneat points out the governor’s lies about the program are what’s known in academic circles as “strategic misrepresentation.” It’s when political actors soft-pedal costs or hype benefits to push a project across the finish line. Others might call it “misinformation,” but think it’s OK if the misinformation promotes a preferred political narrative. Strategic misrepresentation or misinformation — normal people just call it lying.

Westneat and other progressives are OK with the 50 cents per gallon if it starts a shift away from hydrocarbon fuels. Switching from a hydrocarbon-based economy to a carbon-free one is going to be the most disruptive conversion our society has attempted. Westneat says, “The truth is 50 cents a gallon is probably just the beginning.” You can track today’s average fuel price around the nation at Gas Buddy.

And what if China and European countries are NOT limiting the growth of their economies by pursuing the unicorn of renewable energy, as we learn from this headline “Sweden abandons 100% renewable energy goal as EU reconsiders climate policies?” Well, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Washington state Democrats want your tax dollars and they’re not afraid to use “strategic misrepresentation” to fool you.

Nancy Churchill is the state committeewoman for the Ferry County Republican Party. She may be reached at DangerousRhetoric@pm.me. The opinions expressed in Dangerous Rhetoric are her own.