A week ago today, I filled up a rental car — an SUV — for less than $32, paying $2.99 a gallon at the Costco in Aurora, Colorado.
That same day, the price at Tumwater’s Costco was $4.29 a gallon — more than $1.30 a gallon higher.
Now that’s spooky, on Halloween or any other day.
Our gas prices have always been higher than in many other parts of the country, which I’ve learned to accept. That’s due in large part to the state’s higher gasoline taxes. While some attribute the high prices to our distance from refineries, Washington has five operating refineries, giving the state the fifth highest oil refining capacity among U.S. states.
But in recent months, as our prices hovered near $5 a gallon, I saw huge discrepancies in the price per gallon even in comparison with nearby states, which aren’t any closer to refineries than we are.
Back in the good old days, whenever we traveled to the coast, we always filled our gas tank in town because the price was higher at the beach. So earlier this month, when I headed to Newport, Oregon, for my annual writing trek with my friend from Beaverton, I filled up at Love’s in Napavine for $4.79 a gallon, the cheapest I could find at the time.
But in Newport, the price was $4.17 a gallon — more than 60 cents a gallon less than I’d paid. If you’ve been to Newport, you’ve probably seen the Highway 20 sign that lists the distance from the West Coast to the East Coast — 3,365 miles to Boston. On a whim, I checked the price of gas in Boston: $3.75 a gallon (more than a dollar a gallon less than I paid in Chehalis).
During the past two months, when I’ve driven to my writers’ critique group meeting in Sherwood, Oregon, the gas price at the Space Age station at I-5’s Exit 52 near Barnes Road and Toutle Lake Park was 60 cents a gallon higher than the Space Age in Tualatin, Oregon — and in Oregon, they pump the gas for you.
When we visited my daughter and her husband in Pullman, the gas price in nearby Moscow, Idaho, was 80 cents cheaper than in Pullman. Which is less than 10 miles away. Maybe it’s worth the drive to save $12 to fill up the tank, especially if you have other tasks to do there.
While I’m relieved to see the gas prices dropping, they’re still far higher than the national average. This week, we rank behind only California ($5.39 a gallon) and Hawaii ($4.77) for highest gas prices in the nation, with our average at $4.76. The national average price for a gallon of gas last week was $3.50 a gallon.
A large chunk of our higher gas prices can be traced to the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) passed in Washington state in 2021, a cap-and-trade measure designed to curtail carbon emissions by charging oil companies and others emitting greenhouse gases. Of course, oil companies pass on most of those extra charges to consumers.
According to an Oct. 8 Seattle Times article, the state has raised $1.5 billion from the carbon tax. Much of that money has been gleaned from drivers — disproportionately those who live in rural areas and must drive farther to work. The carbon tax revenues are designed to subsidize electric vehicles, electrify homes and support renewable energy. (By the way, hydroelectric power is considered a renewable resource by the EPA, Oregon and other states, but Washington’s voters — in all their lack of wisdom — deemed it isn’t by passing Initiative 937 in 2006.)
I’m all for saving the planet. The Bible calls us to be good stewards of our environment. I recycle everything I can. And, yes, I probably drive too much. I’d buy an electric car, but they’re too expensive. I have to wonder why drivers in Washington state must bear the brunt of the cost for controlling greenhouse gases.
With the soaring price of fuel, a Tri-Cities lawmaker suggested sending gas tax relief to Washington drivers. Rep. April Connors, a Kennewick Republican, announced plans to introduce a bill in January to provide registered vehicle owners with $100 each or $200 per family in July to offset the expensive fuel taxes they’ve paid and then every year when they renew their license tabs. However, her so-called Carbon Auction Relief Payment program is likely to go nowhere in Washington’s Democratic-controlled Legislature, even though the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) has boosted gas prices by 50 cents a gallon and raised three times more money than anticipated.
According to the Sept. 18, 2023, Tri-Cities Herald, House Republicans say the CCA money in the 2023-25 operating budget goes for clean energy siting and permitting, government planning, energy assistance and community and tribal support ($200 million); transportation ($970 million); and solar, hydrogen and geothermal heating projects ($472 million).
Efforts are already underway by a political action committee called Let’s Go Washington to repeal the CCA cap-and-invest program because of higher fuel prices. Initiative 2117 needs at least 325,000 signatures by Dec. 29 in order to go before the Legislature for action. If lawmakers refuse to repeal the tax, it will go before voters in November 2024. Voters earlier rejected two other carbon tax measures.
We need a common sense approach to controlling carbon emissions — one that won’t tax us into the poorhouse. And what do we have to look forward to next? A per-mile road tax is expected to go into effect statewide by 2030. Given the high costs of gas, that may be cheaper if the state replaces the gas tax with the per-mile fee. But chances are, they’ll keep both in place, hitting rural folks with an even heavier burden.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
