Buys: Carbon Tax Proposal Would Have A Devastating Impact on Agriculture

During last week’s State of the state, Governor Jay Inslee rolled out his latest proposed carbon tax.  Under his plan, carbon emissions would be taxed at $20 per ton starting next year.  After that, the tax rate would move higher by 3.5%, plus inflation annually.  The governor’s office estimates the carbon tax would generate over $3.3 billion over the first four years.

But, how would such a carbon tax impact Washington’s ag industry?  Representative Vincent Buys, the ranking republican on the House Ag and Natural Resources Committee says a carbon tax is unnecessary and would hurt rural Washingtonians and the poor.  He added a carbon tax on natural gas for example would devastate agriculture

“For instance the potato industry, how much heat and natural gas is being used just to process into fries and potato chips and the final product that’s going on to market, it would devastate that one industry.”

Buys added Inslee’s proposal has no environmental benefits.

“We can devastate ever industry in the ag sector by doing this, but what do we gain? There’s absolutely no environmental impact that this is going to have, but to our rural communities and our farmers and our ag producers and processors it’s going to have a devastating impact.”

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