Newly obtained documents, according to the free market think tank, The Washington Policy Center, indicate Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was well aware that the price of gasoline would rise significantly as he was publicly denying such an outcome in 2022 of his Climate Commitment Act, which imposed a quarterly permit auction in the state to emit carbon fuel. The result of the permit auction law to emit carbon in Washington began in January 2023 and ushered in much higher gas prices in the state.
In July 2023, six months after the Inslee law was in effect, Washington drivers and truckers were paying the highest gasoline price in the United States.
It’s time to fix Washington’s cap-and-trade program! WA just passed CA and HI for the highest gas prices in the nation. Why is this program so costly? And how did lawmakers get this so wrong?
LINK: https://t.co/LDvROpSK8Z pic.twitter.com/IYb9V5UN7s
— WA Trucking Assn (@WATruckingAssn) June 23, 2023
In 2022, Gov. Inslee told a Seattle TV news reporter that his permit auction law to emit carbon , “they are not going to see much higher gas prices and maybe even lower than they are today.”
In the last few months of 2023, Washington gasoline prices did fall, which is generally part of the seasonal cycle of demand for gasoline after summer travel season subsides in September.
