A recent graphic from the group Clean & Prosperous Washington (CPW) illustrates the strange math of climate policy in Washington state – where taxes are counted as savings and the costs of climate policies outweigh the environmental benefits. These sorts of accounting games end up doing more environmental harm because they skew the analysis toward expenditures that yield few (if any) environmental benefits, undermining the already wasteful low-carbon fuel standard to make electric ferries appear feasible.

The graphic claims to tabulate the costs and benefits of purchasing electric ferries to replace the existing diesel ferries. The proposal has hit the rocks because of the extremely high cost, and the legislature is looking to remove the requirement that ferries be built in Washington to try to bring the price down.

CPW released this graphic claiming that even expensive electric ferries would create more benefits than costs. Several things stand out, but I’ll focus on a few elements that are particularly enlightening.