On a late summer morning in Federal Way, cars were lining up at a gas station where the price per gallon was eye-poppingly low: $2.99.
A lot of people who pulled in thought the sign was broken. It wasn’t. This was a publicity stunt.
Energized volunteers, about a dozen of them, weaved between vehicles, chatting with the pleasantly perplexed drivers fueling up on cheap gas before the promotion ended. These campaigners worked with Let’s Go Washington, the group behind a ballot measure that will let voters decide on the fate of the state’s signature climate law.
Washington Initiative 2117, or I-2117, one of several initiatives that will appear on ballots in November, would eliminate the state’s carbon credit market, or “cap and invest” program, which forces big companies to pay the state for their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce those emissions over time.
Millionaire hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, the main financial supporter behind this year’s slate of Republican-backed initiatives – and several recent events offering discounted gasoline around Washington – was also at the Federal Way fuel station. Heywood says the carbon market is an inefficient money waster, calling the program a “hidden gas tax” that’s too burdensome for Washingtonians to pay.