WA Senate committee advances tougher carbon standards for transportation fuels
Cleaner Fuels, Costlier Gas: Washington's bold move sparks debate
Washington Senate committee advances stricter emissions standards for transportation fuels, sparking debate over environmental benefits versus potential gas price hikes. The bill now heads to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for further consideration.
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Stricter emissions standards for gas, diesel and other transportation fuels advanced out of a state Senate committee Friday morning.
House Bill 1409 accelerates the reduction of carbon emissions from transportation fuels under the state’s Clean Fuel Standard.
Prime Sponsor Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, said stricter standards will bring more incentive to make cleaner-burning fuels in Washington rather than other markets like California.
WA State Rep. Fitzgibbon
"We need to strengthen this program in order for Washington's Clean Fuel Standard to be driving the continued development of clean fuels and to ensure that we are on track to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets," he told the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee at a public hearing on March 19.
Republicans on the committee largely opposed the bill moving forward Friday.
Ranking Member Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, said on top of lawmakers considering new taxes that could increase costs, the stricter environmental standards would only pile on by raising the price of gas.
WA State Sen. Boehnke
GasBuddy data shows Washington already has the third-highest average price in the country at $4.13/gallon.
"We all agree, we want to go after these goals," the Republican senator said. "We want to make sure they’re measurable, they’re achievable and with that is sustainable. And the big piece of our no votes today was some of us had concerns about the affordability on ratepayers."
Boehnke argued market-based solutions are needed to support clean-fuel manufacturing in the state and compete with other markets across the region and around the world.
Refinery (Courtesy TVW)
"We want to have some tweaks to the language that gives us that affordability, allows us to have the supply chain, the market can go after the feedstock that allows us to manufacture here in the state, increases jobs," he said. "And we didn’t see some of that in the bill."
In a statement, Rep. Fitzgibbon said he is glad to see the effort move forward.
Washington's Clean Fuels Standard is accelerating our transition away from dirty fossil fuels and has impacted the price of gasoline by less than a penny per gallon," he said.
The Association of Washington Business previously testified the standard in its early stages currently has a minimal impact on transportation fuels, but that will change over time. The Western States Petroleum Association said the proposed change could add anywhere from 4 to 25 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas.
The bill now moves to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for their consideration.
Albert James is a television reporter covering state government as part of the Murrow News Fellowship program – a collaborative effort between news outlets statewide and Washington State University.
The Source: Information for this article comes from the Olympia News Bureau.
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