Lars Larson: Washington Carbon Tax to spike gas prices

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

If you think gas prices are high now, just wait: Jay Inslee’s new carbon tax hits at the end of the year and it’s a doozy.

Northwest states already pay punishing prices for petroleum.

Now, when the nationwide average cost of gas pushed to 5 bucks a gallon before falling back by fifty cents…Oregon and Washington already pay more.

Washington’s state and federal taxes total 67 point 8 cents a gallon.

When the new carbon tax hits just after Christmas, it will add almost half a dollar to that.

State lawmakers passed the so-called “Climate commitment act” last year when Americans still enjoyed the low gas prices Donald Trump left us with.

That was before Slo Joe Biden’s war on oil companies more than doubled prices.

And now we know those lawmakers in Olympia used fake numbers. They claimed the carbon tax would be about 20 bucks a metric ton…but now the State Department of ecology admits the tax will be almost triple that…58 bucks a ton plus.

For diesel , the price goes up 59 cents a gallon.

Washington’s consumer price index is up by double digits, 10.1 percent as of last month.

The sensible thing for lawmakers to do is put these crazy carbon taxes on hold.

But when was the last time you saw sensible from Salem or Olympia?