Sen. John Braun
Washington State
Washington State University recently announced it would cost the school $1 billion to comply with a state mandate to ban natural gas. And that’s just one of the state’s public universities.
Where would that money come from? You, the taxpayer. Aren’t you already getting squeezed enough?
You wouldn’t just be paying more for your own energy bill. You would also see your taxes increase to cover the exorbitant costs for state institutions to convert entirely to electric power.
You’re already seeing an impact to your home heating bill from the cap-and-tax program in the “Climate Commitment Act,” even though the office of Attorney General Bob Ferguson advised the Utilities and Trade Commission to rule that one of the largest power companies in our state can’t show that itemized cost on your bill.
If you don’t see it itemized on your billing statement, compare it to your statement from the same time last year.
And now we are hearing that schools are being hit with high increases to their gas bill. One high school in Southwest Washington saw an increase of $2,300 for a single month. And a district in Eastern Washington, has seen their district-wide February gas bill increase $70,000 over February of last year.
Enough is enough. I support Initiative 2117 to repeal the Climate Commitment Act and I strongly oppose any ban on natural gas, especially when we must maintain diverse sources of energy.
Important News Clips
- OPINION: WA Cares is not the solution for the state’s graying population (Elizabeth Hovde directs Washington Policy Center’s Worker Rights and Health Care centers/The Seattle Times)
- Financial literary may soon be a graduation requirement at all Washington high schools (KING TV)
- Bill that would make financial education a high school graduation requirement in Washington passes out of committee (The Spokesman-Review)
- ‘Walking start to Running Start’: Bill would allow students to enroll in college courses before 11th grade (The Spokesman-Review)WA Republicans outraged over bill allowing felons to ask for reduced prison time (KPQ Radio)
- Over a thousand drunk driving arrests in Washington so far in 2024 (KHQ TV)
- Curriculum about fentanyl, other opioids could come to Washington junior high classrooms (KUOW Radio)
- OPINION: Fentanyl, mental health, homelessness: They intersect in the ER (Ketul J. Patel, CEO of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and chair-elect of the Washington State Hospital Association, and Christine Gregoire, CEO of Challenge Seattle and former Washington state governor and attorney general/The Seattle Times)
- Republicans in Washington Legislature bristle over collapse of rural housing bills (Washington State Standard)