The oil company Phillips 66 has contributed an additional $3.5 million to defeat a statewide ballot measure, Initiative 1631, that would impose a carbon-pollution fee on fossil -fuel emissions.
That brings the corporation’s total contributions to the opposition campaign to $7.2 million — almost half of the No on 1631 fundraising that on Wednesday totaled $16 million. Phillips 66 operates a refinery in northwest Washington about 20 miles south of the Canadian border and processes a mix of U.S. and foreign crude oil, according to a company website.
Other major contributors to the opposition campaign include Chevron, BP, Andeavor and the trade association American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, according to documents filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
The campaign to pass the measure — Clean Air Clean Energy Wa. — has raised more than $5.3 million. The largest contributor to that effort is the Nature Conservancy, which has given more than $1.2 million, according to state records.
I-1631 would impose a fee on fossil-fuel emissions that along with other human activities, scientists say, are warming the planet. The fee would take effect in 2020, assessed at $15 per metric ton of carbon emissions. That would add about 14 cents to a gallon of gasoline and also raise the costs of other fossil-fuel products.
The fee would escalate over time and would be capped once the state was on track to meet greenhouse gas-reduction targets. The money generated by the fee would be used to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and help the state adapt to climate change.
The size of the oil-industry spending to defeat the measure has become a talking point for proponents, who on Wednesday held a meeting with media to draw attention to the latest infusions of petroleum money.
That group included tribal leaders Fawn Sharp, of the Quinault Indian Nation; Chairman Tom Wooten, of the Samish Indian Nation; and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, who called the initiative “a way to hold corporate polluters accountable.”
