Dec 19, 2012: A busy few days

• A great article in the Whitman College newspaper by student Sam Chapman. And David Frum on CNN.com. And Sightline's Anna Fahey says that a new poll shows that Americans are "conflicted on a carbon tax".
• Governor Gregoire's budget proposal came out yesterday; it's essentially focused on education. Despite rumors that she was going to introduce a transportation package, the only transportation element in her proposal is really about education: she wants to impose a wholesale excise tax on motor fuels that will fund pupil transport (i.e., yellow school buses). More here and here; eventually her proposal would amount to about 12 cents a gallon of gasoline.
• I think Gregoire's budget proposal emphasizes how challenging it will be for either climate folks or transportation folks to move their separate agendas forward in the months ahead. That's potentially good news for us since we're proposing that climate folks and transportation folks work together on a joint effort.
• PS. Gregoire also released a handy 5-pager that lays out her take on the state's transportation needs.

Dec 16, 2012: Why connect a carbon tax to transportation infrastructure maintenance?

First, transportation accounts for about 50% of fossil fuel CO2 in Washington State; so it makes sense to direct 50% of carbon tax revenue to transportation. For a carbon tax of $30 per tonne CO2, that means about $1.15 billion per year, which sounds like a lot but in fact is just about perfect because...

Second, there is a huge unmet need for transportation maintenance in Washington State. The 2012 Connecting Washington report identified almost $800 million a year over the next 10 years in unmet needs just for maintenance of existing highways, roads, and bridges. Restoring transit funding to 2008 levels would bring the total to $1 billion a year over the next 10 years. Additional readings here include:

• "Potholes forever: the state's transportation-funding impasse", which links to
• Governor-elect Inslee's transportation policy paper;
• "The Transportation Crisis Facing Washington’s Next Governor";
• "Washington Governor to Propose Major Investment in Transportation", which refers to outgoing Governor Gregoire's plan, to be released the week of Dec 17, 2012;
• the Association of Washington Business legislative agenda, which "opposes state carbon tax pricing policies" but simultaneously acknowledges that current transportation funding sources are “inadequate” and boldly makes the case for investment in system maintenance, freight mobility, and new capacity, and then degenerates into mumbling about paying for this with “funding strategies” that the legislature should “clearly articulate”;
• and this summary of the McCleary decision by the state Supreme Court about how the state needs to do more to fund K-12 education; note the graph on page 2 showing approximately $200 million per year in required funding for "student transport".

Finally, it makes political sense to connect carbon taxes and transportation infrastructure. Business, organized labor, and voters across the state place a high priority on maintaining the transportation system; but voters (especially in Western Washington) are concerned about the environmental impact of transportation spending, meaning that this is one of the few areas where environmental groups have political clout. We can leverage that political clout into a win-win outcome.

Dec 11, 2012: Carbon taxes and coal export

There continues to be a lot of talk about carbon taxes at the state level in Washington (and in Oregon and maybe even in California) and also a lot of play at the national level, including this Elizabeth Kobert piece in the New Yorker, plus David Frum and this terrific Tom Toles cartoon. Nothing more definitive to report---and there probably won't be until legislatures come back into session in January---but we should keep pushing!

Speaking of pushing, there's a big coal-export hearing this Thursday afternoon. I'm planning to go and drum up support for CarbonWA (in addition to adding my voice to those who think that coal exports are not a great idea), so if you're interested in joining the fun let me know or text/call me at the event: 206-351-5719.

Dec 1, 2012: Senator Kevin Ranker (D-Orcas Island) on carbon taxes

Some great carbon tax news via Crosscut about state senator Kevin Ranker from Orcas Island. We've got a meeting with him this coming Friday so hopefully we'll know more soon... but the bottom line is that carbon tax talk continues to heat up!