REDMOND, Wash. — A conservative group has begun a petition drive to eliminate Washington’s new cap-and-trade program.

The organization, Let’s Go Washington, is collecting signatures on a petition asking the state Legislature to repeal the program, which went into effect this year, holding its first auctions of carbon allowances in February and May. (See Washington Confirms $300M Take for 1st Cap-and-Trade Auction.)

The state’s fledgling program is taking a huge amount of political heat from state Republicans, who blame it for leaving Washington with the highest gasoline prices in the nation. They argue that oil companies running Washington’s five refineries are passing on the high cost of the allowances they must buy from the state or other entities in the market. (See Cap-and-trade Driving up Washington Gasoline Prices, Critics Say.)

“It’s such a scam.  It’s a hidden tax,” Brian Heywood, head of Let’s Go Washington, said Saturday at a festival for Republican political candidates in the Seattle suburb of Redmond.

Heywood contended that Gov. Jay Inslee and Democratic legislators downplayed the threat of rising gasoline prices that he thinks came about because of the cap-and trade auctions. When the Legislature passed the program in 2021, Inslee’s administration predicted gas prices would rise only a few pennies as a result.

“He lied to begin with,” Heywood said.

February’s allowance auction raised almost $300 million, which the Legislature appropriated for fiscal 2024, which began July 1. That money went into 188 individual allocations for solar farms, climate planning, pumped storage projects, developing a hydrogen industry, installing solar panels on buildings, constructing infrastructure for electric vehicles, developing hybrid fuel-electric ferries and other projects.

A May auction of allowances raised $557 million for fiscal 2025, while breaking a soft cap for allowance prices that triggered an additional auction of allowances from a reserve intended to rein in carbon prices. If allowance auction sales continue at their current rate, the Legislature could be looking at more than $2 billion in cap-and-trade revenue for fiscal 2025. (See Wash. Cap-and-Trade Auction Prices Break Soft Cap.)

“That means the money is going to boondoggles that Inslee wants for his friends,” Heywood said. He argued that cap-and-trade is intended to raise gasoline prices to force people to switch from gasoline to electric vehicles.

‘Climate Denialism’

Inslee spokesperson Mike Faulk noted that the petition on Let’s Go Washington’s website calls for repealing cap-and-trade “regardless of whether the resulting increased costs are imposed on fuel recipients or fuel suppliers.”

“Sounds like it has more to do with climate denialism than addressing consumers’ concerns about gas prices,” Faulk said.

Inslee has acknowledged that gasoline prices have risen higher than projected. “But it remains speculative to lay exclusive blame for price increases on” cap-and-trade, Faulk said. This month, the governor accused oil companies of using confusion around cap-and-trade to gouge Washington drivers and take excessive profits. Democratic legislative leaders intend to introduce a bill next year to require oil companies to provide greater transparency into their finances. (See Inslee Challenges Cap-and-trade Role in High Wash. Gas Prices.)

Faulk said a third of the cap-and-trade program’s revenue goes to communities overburdened by pollution and climate impacts, with an additional 10% directed to the state’s tribes. The rest goes to transitioning away from a carbon-based economy.

Let’s Go Washington must collect 324,516 valid signatures for its petition by Dec. 29 to submit to the Legislature in time for consideration during the 2024 session. If the Legislature decides not to act on the petition, the initiative would go to a public ballot in the next general election. Democrats have significant majorities in both the Washington House and Senate, meaning any successful petition likely would receive a chilly reception.

The liberal Northwest Progressive Institute said in January that Let’s Go Washington collected signatures for 11 initiatives in 2022 but did not collect enough to send any to the Legislature.

The cap-and-trade petition is part of a Let’s Go Washington package of six petitions, which includes one calling for repealing a new tax on people earning at least $250,000 in capital gains. The group’s other petitions seek to: forbid the imposition of any state or local income tax in Washington, which does not have such a tax; allow residents to opt out of the state’s long-term care insurance program; remove some restrictions on police pursuits; and allow students to opt out of certain surveys, assignments and sex education, as well as allow parents access to their children’s school records and instructional materials.