Clean air is basic right. But low-carbon fuel edict for Puget Sound counties (including Pierce) is wrong

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s current efforts to impose a regional low carbon fuel standard on the residents of King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties are a clear example of costly regulatory overreach and the antithesis of democratic governance.

Polluting the political process is not the way to an intelligent and equitable low carbon fuel standard.

Since the middle of the last century, it has been understood that clean air is a basic right. Congress enacted the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. Then it passed the Clean Air Act of 1963.

With this in mind, the state of Washington in 1967 formed the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, a regional government agency chartered by state law.

The PSCAA has the authority under the Washington Clean Air Act (RCW 70.94), the State Environmental Policy Act (RCW 43.21(C), and WAC 197-11) to enforce the Clean Air Act in King, Snohomish, Kitsap and Pierce counties, the state’s most populous region.

Frustrated that the 2019 Legislature failed to agree on bills to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels, PSCAA unilaterally rolled out a regional low carbon fuel standard proposal. It would apply to transportation fuels supplied or sold in the agency’s jurisdiction.

This move by the PSCAA will cost money – yours.

The agency’s analysis for implementing a 26-percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 includes worst-case cost ranges of 22 to 57 cents per gallon for conventional vehicles; 24 to 63 cents per gallon for diesel fuel; and 1 to 2 cents per mile for heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

The proposed standard also assumes many Puget Sound drivers will give up their conventionally fueled vehicles for higher efficiency gas or electric vehicles.

To make its intent clear, PSCAA has appointed a control officer to observe and enforce the provisions of the Clean Air Act. This officer will “be empowered to sign official complaints, issue citations, initiate court suits, or use other legal means to enforce the provisions of the Act.”

This raises several questions:

Does the control officer have the capacity to implement and enforce a clean fuel standard? Does PSCAA expect to involve local governments in enforcement? What kind of staffing, technology or other resources will be needed, and how would they be funded?

While awaiting answers to these questions, the PSCAA willfully ignores the stated facts defining its existence as a state regulatory agency. In 2015 the Legislature addressed – and rejected – “low carbon fuel standards” or “clean air standards” in its adoption of Senate Bill 5987.

If this doesn’t clear the political air, then perhaps the results of two recent elections will help.

In 2016, Washington voters rejected Initiative 732, a measure that would have imposed a carbon emission tax on certain fossil fuels and fossil-fuel-generated electricity. In 2018, they rejected I-1631, a measure that would have charged pollution fees on sources of greenhouse gas pollutants.

In both elections, three of the four counties that PSCAA purports to represent voted against these initiatives; only King County voted in favor.

Yet the Seattle-based PSCAA went ahead and proposed a low carbon fuel standard for the four-county region.

As the PSCAA fields public comments (which will continue through Jan. 6) about its fuel standard proposal, it should consider the following:

The Washington Clean Air Act is a state law, and any fuel standard intended to encourage or enforce compliance with the act is a state-level issue. It should and must be addressed by the Legislature and/or by statewide ballot measure.

Given this, the PSCAA should stop polluting the democratic process by attempting to impose its will on residents of Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap counties.

This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Clean air is basic right. But low-carbon fuel edict for Puget Sound counties (including Pierce) is wrong."