Washington State Ranks 44th in Carbon Emissions Reduction Since 2004
For much of the past decade, elected officials in Washington State have been talking about the critical need to limit carbon emissions to reduce the impact of climate change. The Governor, former Seattle Mayor Nickels and others have even highlighted their "leadership" on the issue.
Information released recently from the Energy Information Administration, however, shows that Washington is anything but a leader when it comes to actual results.
From 2004-09, Washington state's CO2 emissions actually increased by 0.5 percent, placing Washington 44th in the country in controlling carbon emissions. Washington is one of only eight states that saw its emissions increase from 2004-09. Overall, the United States saw CO2 emissions fall by nearly 9 percent.
Over the last decade, Washington does better, ranking 24th, although the CO2 reductions are still lower than the national average. This means that Washington's carbon emissions reductions during the last ten years came early in the decade. Those reductions are associated with energy price spikes in 2001 that resulted in the closure of aluminum plants. Since that one-time windfall of carbon emission reductions, Washington has actually increased carbon emissions by 6 percent.
Put simply, it wasn't government policy that led to the one reduction in carbon emissions Washington did see in the last decade.
During the past several years, Washington state, Seattle and other jurisdictions have adopted a range of measures designed to cut carbon emissions. Given the poor results we are seeing, it is time to stop throwing good money after bad and consider a new approach to energy efficiency.
Comments
Market solutions
The linked spreadsheet shows that almost all of the growth in C02 emissions came from increased consumption of natural gas. In particular, there was a big jump in C02 emissions from natural gas between 2007 and 2008.
Natural gas prices dropped a lot over the last several years? Did consumers and industry respond normally to a price drop by consuming more?
On the other hand, the results may not be as poor as you believe. Washington's population increased by 480,000 between 2004 and 2009. C02 output per capita decreased by about 7%.
What market solutions do you propose to reduce C02 output?
Washington Ranks 42nd in Per Capita Emissions Reductions
First, calculating the change in per capita CO2 emissions from 2004 to 2009, Washington state only goes up to 42nd in the country. The United States as a whole reduced CO2 emissions by 13.3 percent, nearly twice Washington's rate.
Second, we have offered a simple market approach to pricing carbon. You note that consumers may be using more natural gas due to low cost. Our policy uses exactly that kind of incentive. You can read more about it here:
Develop a personal incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a revenue neutral carbon price and offering investment tax credits to promote creativity and innovation
http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/legislative/2011-fresh-star...
Carbon pricing
Why have other states been more successful than Washington in reducing C02 emissions?
I'm a fan of pigouvian taxes. A simple, revenue neutral carbon tax as you suggest would be great. Will Republicans in the legislature support it? Would a carbon tax only in Washington put the state at a competitive disadvantage?
If the price is right, investment tax credits aren't necessary. I'd rather see us do a better job of capturing externalities in a product's price and let normal market forces go to work. For example if the $50+ billion in environmental and health costs caused by generating electricity from coal were included in the price, we'd probably use a lot less of it.