- Washington’s Democratic governor released a supplemental budget Wednesday calling for over $900 million collected from emission taxes to go toward the state’s environmental and climate priorities.
- A significant portion of the funds will go toward the electric vehicle industry, investing in projects to boost green energy and helping organizations apply for “environmental justice” grants.
- “We do not believe that money should be wasted on crony-capitalist schemes promoted by politically-connected hustlers,” Chairman Jim Walsh of the Washington Republican Party told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee unveiled a $941 million climate initiative as part of a supplemental budget plan Wednesday that would steer $900 million in funds generated by the state’s cap-and-trade emission tax into the green energy industry.
Washington’s carbon tax has generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue between February and September by making businesses pay for their emissions, an added overhead cost that critics argue contributes to the state’s gas prices, which are among the highest in the nation. These funds will be redirected toward electric school buses, developing a clean energy workforce, installing electric vehicle chargers and climate resilience projects, among other things, according to the supplemental budget document. (RELATED: Blue State To Shell Out Billions On Fish As Transportation Infrastructure Crumbles)
“Washington’s cap and trade emissions tax is unfair and disproportionately burdens the working class,” Joe Kent, a Republican running for Congress in Washington’s Third District, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“However, since the tax is already in place, the money generated should be used to fund local infrastructure projects like roads and bridges,” he continued. “Gov. Inslee decided to redirect that revenue to the green energy industry, exemplifying the Democratic Party’s contempt for working class voters.”
Of the $941 million Inslee proposes spending on climate and the environment, $900 million will come from the state’s carbon tax, according to his supplemental budget.
The proposed supplemental budget aims to reduce emissions in Washington public schools by spending $20 million on installing energy efficient HVAC systems and $31 million on purchasing electric school buses.
“While the governor claims the money is going to ‘green energy,’ the truth is that a huge portion goes to [the] government and payoffs for political special interests,” Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, told the DCNF.
“In the first round of expenditures from the CO2 tax, more than half went to expanding government programs like planning, permitting, implementation of the law and other programs,” he continued. “Tens of millions more are targeted to specific industries, even if those projects don’t yield CO2 reductions.”
Other line items include $15.2 million to pay for electric ferries, $2.7 million to be invested in the “clean technology and climate” industries and hundreds of thousands of dollars to help people apply for “environmental justice” grants.
Inslee also wants the state to lean heavily into electric vehicles (EVs), proposing $20 million to install EV charging stations along Washington’s highways and $28 million to facilitate transitioning the state’s fleet of vehicles to electric.
Republicans in the Evergreen state are “deeply concerned with the sloppy and imprecise way that government revenues generated by the Climate Commitment Act are being spent,” Washington GOP Chairman Jim Walsh told the DCNF.
“We do not believe that money should be wasted on crony-capitalist schemes promoted by politically-connected hustlers,” he continued.
One of the largest line items in the proposed budget, pegged at $136.5 million, would invest in training workers for the green industry, pay for “projects that demonstrate high-wage, clean job creation in Washington” and subsidize infrastructure investments that “increase a community’s capacity for clean manufacturing.”
Republicans representing Washington in Congress were also critical of Inslee’s proposed transfer of tax funds to green energy interests.
“All people in Washington have to show for the governor’s failure to meet even a single one of his climate goals are higher taxes, less energy choice, and steeper gas prices than the day he took office,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers told the DCNF.
“With his legacy on the line, he wants to use his lame-duck years to gaslight people and waste another $941 million. The irony is almost as thick as the sludge and pollution in the Puget Sound,” she continued.
The carbon tax is part of a broader state-wide effort to make Washington have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Washington already gets most of its energy from hydroelectric and nuclear power, which produce negligible carbon emissions.
(Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)
The transfers to the green energy industry are “an out of touch policy,” Rep. Dan Newhouse told the DCNF.
It “only makes sense that this administration would use a program that has cost Washingtonians billions of dollars to redistribute wealth while driving up the cost of living for everyone,” he continued.
Washington’s carbon tax could meet its end in 2024. An effort to repeal the tax has garnered more than 400,000 signatures, meaning voters will have the option to strike it down on their 2024 ballot.
Brian Heywood, the man behind the effort, told the DCNF that he feels “really good” about the chances of the taxes being repealed. Around 55.4% of the people that provided signatures in support of a ballot measure to repeal the tax were registered as either Democrats or Independents, which he says signals the initiative has “broad bipartisan appeal.”
Members of Inslee’s administration should pledge not to take jobs at companies that benefited from the state’s transfer of funds collected under the cap-and-trade system, according to Heywood.
Inslee’s $941 million announcement builds on the $2.1 billion Washington lawmakers have already allocated for climate change and green energy projects this year.
The Washington Governor’s Office did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.