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Welcome to the Carbon Pricing Café! Do you have a reservation? Let’s see… oh yes, here you are: Washington State, table for 7 million. Right this way, please; we’ve got a spot for you by the window. My name is Carbon Tax, and I’ll be your server today. You may know my twin sister, Cap-and-Trade, who sometimes covers for me. Some diners seem to have a strong preference between us,...

While Cascadian climate hawks have been fighting rearguard actions against proposed pipelines and coal trains, California has been rolling out an ambitious carbon cap. Such a cap is the principal alternative to a carbon tax—such as British Columbia’s carbon tax shift—as a method for putting a price on carbon in Oregon and Washington. It’s an option Oregon will consider next year in its impending revenue-reform debate. In Washington, the Golden...

Update: Seattle City Council members Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant have proposed replacing the sales tax funding in Mayor Murray’s plan to reverse bus cuts with an employee head tax and expansion of the city’s commercial parking tax. Also, transit advocates who filed an initiative to buy back bus service with a property tax increase officially suspended that campaign this week, citing the city’s action and the “more progressive” alternative...

Right about now, oil executives in Texas are boarding a plane bound for the Northwest. Their goal? To steam roll opposition to the monster oil train terminal that Tesoro wants to construct on the downtown waterfront of Vancouver, Washington. Hot on the heels of learning that the local city council is narrowly opposed to the project, the oil refining giant is going on a full court press lobbying mission in...

Seattle recently got accolades for being one of the US cities with significant growth in transit ridership. This mirrors a national trend in which more people rode buses, trains, streetcars and subways last year than at any time since 1956. A good part of that bump came from Sound Transit. But King County Metro’s bus ridership also grew by 3 percent last year, and it has nearly reached the record...

Clark Here’s a fascinating look at the number of jobs in the public and private sectors under the last 5 presidents. The upshot: when you strip out recessions, and possibly the nation’s response to the 9/11 attacks, there’s less difference than you might expect in growth in private sector jobs. But what’s truly anomalous about the last five years is the shrinkage in public sector jobs. The four prior presidents,...

Decades of polling analysis by Stanford social psychologist Jon Krosnick and his team reveal some good news. Great news, really—even if it’s way past the reasonable time limit for us to be discussing the “debate” about the science of climate change. It looks like American climate denial is dying, even in the majority of “red” states. Plus, majorities across this great land are still ready for policy measures to cut...

A few months back, Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group (a Democratic and a Republican firm working together) conducted a survey of young Americans (under 35) for the League of Conservation Voters, to gauge attitudes about climate change, understanding of the problem, and readiness for leadership and policy solutions. The finding: Young voters of both parties want to see action on climate change and will support leaders willing to...

These are exciting times for carbon pricing in the Pacific Northwest. Under the auspices of the Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup (CLEW), state leaders are, right now, engaged in the first serious look at the subject in years. (Please be sure to attend the hearings on October 23 in Seattle, and December 6 in Olympia!) The work is heavily informed by a recently released report commissioned by the state. It...

The race for the Whatcom County Council may turn into one of the nation’s most important votes for climate change. That’s because the county is home to Cherry Point, the site of a massive proposed coal terminal—which, if constructed, would be the biggest coal terminal in North America, allowing 48 million of tons of coal from the landlocked western US to reach Asian seaborne coal markets. In Whatcom County, local...