Letter: Carbon tax won’t change the future

It’s pretty simple.

What I-1631 will do:

1a. By 2040 I-1631 will have added about 80 cents/gal. to gasoline and increased the cost of electricity from natural gas about 30 percent. (However, these numbers are not nearly high enough to achieve its purpose, i.e., force people to more expensive electricity and electric vehicles.)

1b. It may generate upwards of $1 billion/year, 10 percent of which will go exclusively to Indian tribes, $50 million/year for a Cadillac-plan of job displacement benefits (mainly for bargaining-unit workers).

What I-1631 will not do:

2a. It will not change Washington state’s climate a whit. Washington is only 0.25 percent of total, man-induced global CO2 emissions.

2b. I-1631 will not save Wash. state from any adverse weather or climate-related events whatsoever.

I-1631 is a huge tax/bureaucracy burden that does not accomplish any of its stated goals. We can best protect Washington for our children by leaving them affordable, plentiful, on-demand energy. Ways to do this include maintaining current hydroelectric dams, phasing in advanced nuclear power, and leaving them with a landscape horizon free of eco-unfriendly wind mills and acres of unsightly black panels. Better to dot the landscape with several million newly planted trees every year. We don’t need I-1631 to do any of this.