Buys: Energy Tax Will Hurt Ag in Many Ways

The Carbon Tax idea may have died during the 2018 legislative session in Olympia, but supporters have already announced efforts to get such a tax on the November ballot before Washington voters.  Representative Vincent Buys has been an outspoken opponent of a Carbon Tax since day one.  The Whatcom County Republican said the proposal is nothing more than an energy tax, that looks to tax gasoline, an home heating whether through electricity or natural gas.

He said any carbon tax will have a big impact the state’s agriculture industry.  Buys said many of Washington’s ag commodities are large energy consumers, from cold storage for tree-fruit, to processing of potatoes, meaning they would feel the hit of additional costs right away.

“Not only the production of that produce in the ground but also the harvesting the processing into those fine products that go out to market, but especially the transportation of those products to market.”

Buys said farmers cannot sit on the sideline if a carbon tax is on the November ballot.  He also noted a carbon tax is not as popular as supporters claim.

“My hope is, people will start to see through that, see through the smoke screen of this is ok because…, or the group in my county is exempted from this, so it’s not going to impact them ultimately its bad policy.”

Supporters of a carbon tax on the November ballot will need to collect nearly 260,000 valid voters' signatures by July 6^th.

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