Washington state to vote on a carbon tax

In Washington state, climate hawks have divided over CarbonWA’s Initiative 732, a proposal for a BC-style revenue-neutral carbon tax shift that will appear on the November ballot. The divisions—over both policy and political strategy—are agonizing and strongly felt. I-732 is therefore a contentious subject to publish about, but with the public vote nearing, Sightline is launching a short series analyzing I-732 and the arguments commonly offered against and for it.

It’s a task we do not relish. At Sightline we believe that climate policy must be effective and fair, not only cutting climate-warming pollution and putting us on track toward clean air and clean energy, but also building a more just and equitable society. We are committed to passing this kind of policy in Cascadia.

We’ve worked toward those goals with most of the parties in this controversy. The leader of CarbonWA is Yoram Bauman, who has been involved with Sightline on and off since 1997, when he began an internship that culminated in co-authoring the book Tax Shift. We have also worked side by side for years with many of the dedicated groups and individuals in the large coalition of organizations assembled as the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy, including close collaboration since 2007 on carbon pricing. When CarbonWA gathered the signatures needed to proceed to the ballot, the Alliance urged CarbonWA to stand down and leave the November 2016 ballot uncluttered for an alternative climate policy to be formulated by a broader coalition, including groups dedicated to social justice for historically marginalized communities. Some Alliance coalition members are leading the opposition to I-732.

Sightline’s own board and staff, interns and fellows, volunteers, contributors, and readers include people at just about every point along the spectrum of views about I-732, and I have personal friends both supporting and opposing the initiative. Almost anything we say could cause hard feelings with someone we respect.

Still, Sightline’s duty is clear. We are a research center. We study issues and propose policy solutions. We examine arguments and stress-test them against logic and empirical evidence. We publish what we learn and let everyone judge for themselves. We try hard to get the facts right (as our research staff will tell you), even when it inconveniences our usual allies (as they will tell you).

Throughout the last year, Sightline has sought to remain deeply engaged, supportive of all responsible efforts to make polluters pay for their carbon pollution, but neutral between efforts. Now, we have studied I-732 and tried our best to put aside everything but the policy itself. What does it do or fail to do? How does it stack up? Sightline’s short series aims to allow Washington voters as impartial and informed a review of it as our analysis can provide.

In general, as we explain in this series, we find I-732 a worthy policy to put Washington on a path to cutting pollution and encouraging clean energy while also helping low-income families by making Washington State taxes less regressive. I-732 has weaknesses, which we enumerate, but putting a strong carbon price in place in Washington would be a big step forward.

[Above is the introduction to an article by the Sightline Institute, explaining why they support the initiativeFor the rest of the a article go to http://www.sightline.org/2016/08/01/pros-cons-carbonwa-carbon-tax-swap-ballot-initiative-732/

A second article considers some of the questions on how the revenue would be used: http://www.sightline.org/2016/08/02/does-initiative-732-carbon-tax-have-a-budget-hole/

The third article evaluates criticisms of the innitiative: http://www.sightline.org/2016/08/03/weighing-critiques-of-carbonwa-i-732/ ]