“The oil and gas industry projections around any of this are halfway between hogwash and baloney.”
This was Gov. Jay Inslee, last winter, talking about the prospect that the state’s new climate change policy would cause a significant rise in gasoline prices.
“This is going to have a minimal impact, if any. Pennies. We are talking about pennies,” Inslee said on another occasion.
Well, now we know the impact has not been minimal. Somewhere on the road between hogwash and baloney, Washington ran into reality. ….
Washington now has the highest fuel prices in the nation, roughly $5 per gallon, having passed perennial front-runner California for first place. In an excellent review of all this by Seattle Times reporters Isabella Breda and Manuel Villa, economists and others said the state’s new climate change law is responsible for about 50 cents of that — exactly what the hogwash and baloney prognosticators had been predicting. …
Since the carbon-pricing program was proposed back in 2021, Inslee’s been saying don’t worry about it. His estimators at the state Department of Ecology said gasoline prices would go up maybe 5 cents, so little you’d scarcely notice. …
It’s interesting going back and listening to [the cap-and-trade debate] in the Legislature. The talk from backers of the bill is all focused on the fate of the planet and charging corporate polluters — there’s virtually no mention of it costing actual people anything. The dissenters said it would raise gasoline prices. …
Another way to put it is 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. …
Switching from a dirty-fuel economy to a clean one is going to be the most disruptive conversion our society has attempted in my life. The truth is 50 cents a gallon is probably just the beginning. …
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