Mashup: House Republicans oppose CCA-related bill that would link WA's carbon market with CA, Quebec

energy affordability is absolutely critical to everything in our daily lives our cost to commute the cost of our food the cost to heating our homes and cooling our homes the climate commitment act has been driving up the cost of electricity gas and Diesel and the solution is not to link with California California has the most unaffordable housing Mar market and the second highest cost of living of any State I oppose linking our carbon Market to California because Washington legislators need to address the affordability crises in Washington Washington lawmakers will be limited in our range of policy opportunities or actions and the timing of those actions if we choose to link to California's Market through a linkage agreement and I urge a no vote today Washington is really in the middle of an affordability crisis our gas prices are third highest in the nation California is consistently higher than than Washington with their gas prices and if we link with California as this bill proposes to do it'll only make our affordability crisis worse and I would encourage a no vote Washington does have an affordability crisis housing and transportation cost 30% more in Washington than the national average takes fuel to run tractors trucks excavators cranes and P it takes fuel to develop housing and apartment buildings and more than 25,000 people are homeless are in an emergency and in transitional housing in Washington because they cannot afford a roof over their head I think linking our energy Market to California will make the problem worse and I'm urging a no vote on linkage I I think if we're going to fix this affordability crisis that we're discussing today uh Washington State's going to need to retain uh not only its sovereignty but the independent decision decision making um with especially as it applies to our energy policy um most certainly the the lowcost energy is part of competitiveness and that creates good paying jobs uh family wage jobs and careers in industry and and it's really for that reason that I'm opposing any long-term agreement to to to to bind a carbon Market with California or or Quebec um in just a few years California even before Washington State um started Banning gas powered lawnmowers and and natural gas stoves and furnaces um and gas powered cars I mean they were ahead of us and their utilities have fouter bankruptcy uh we see uh seasonal blackouts in California and it's all due to a a really a poorly regulated market um California has not done a very good job uh balancing um the competitiveness uh protecting climate but most certainly they' not done a good job protecting the citizens that are most vulnerable to those cost increases uh you've heard it here in committee before but California's energy policy just like Washington's energy policy has a regressive impact uh the gas prices in California about a140 more than the national average and right here in Washington state our gas prices are 60 cents more than the national average average residential rates for utility customers in California has increased 127% in the past last 10 years and you may find in the near future that some of our larger utilities may be asking for larger rate increases you may not see it now but it's happening and it will happen very soon um I think this particular this particular bill will just increase the price of electricity as we go forward we do have an affordability crisis in the state of Washington we have the fourth highest uh food prices and grocery prices in the country um just regular people like me are having a tough time making ends meet uh linkage would put a a stick in the spokes when we need to change policy uh wouldn't allow us to do that um in in in a normal way um by being a sovereign in this in this policy from what we heard in public hearings and I was amazed to hear the Rel of of some of the testifiers that just say that that this has a direct impact on the cost of gas and what California was not afraid to say it because if you read the California reports they have a report that directly links the cost of the carbon market prices to gasoline and Diesel retail gas and Diesel at the pump the prices that are going to impact those in our communities that can at least afford those increases is I think Washington can do better uh by not linking remaining independent and flexible and really not beholden to decision making uh in other states or countries so for that uh reason I'm a no