Governor’s Carbon Plan A Job Buster For Washington

The National Federation of Small Business released a new study predicting a loss of more than 11,000 jobs in a five-year period should Gov. Jay Inslee press ahead with his plan to impose lower carbon fuel standards.In addition to lost livelihoods, the study, Private Sector Disemployment Effects of a New Low Carbon Fuel Standard in Washington State, minced no words in calling the governor’s LCFS (Lower Carbon Fuel Standards) what it actually is: a tax on gasoline.

“Imposing taxes of this magnitude on the consumption of gasoline in Washington would easily make Washington the state with the highest gasoline tax in the nation,” wrote the study’s author, Michael Chow, senior data analyst for the Research Foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business. “All other things being equal, businesses will have to pay more in energy costs to produce the same amount of goods and services … At the household level, higher gas prices mean a combination of lower savings and reduced consumption of goods and services.”

“We’ve heard politicians say addressing climate change is a ‘moral imperative,’ ” noted NFIB’s Washington State Director Patrick Connor. “But how is it moral, or just, to deprive 11,000 families of their livelihoods – and force every Washington family to pay more for fuel in a quixotic quest that will have a negligible effect on global climate? At a minimum, Washington families deserve to have this issue debated, fully and openly, in the Legislature, rather than decided by a hand-picked few and implemented by executive order or agency rule.”

NFIB is America’s largest and leading small-business association and their study can be read here     (NFIB)