Campaign to defend Washington state's climate law raises $11 million, far outpacing opposition

A campaign focused on defending Washington’s Climate Commitment Act from repeal by voters launched Wednesday. The “No on 2117” campaign announced it has obtained more than $11 million in pledges from environmental groups, unions, tribes, and corporations.

It aims to defeat Initiative 2117 on the November ballot, the proposal to eliminate the state’s carbon auctions for large greenhouse gas emitters.

Washington state passed the Climate Commitment Act in 2021 to reduce carbon pollution and to help communities withstand the impacts of climate change. A campaign video by “No on 2117” touts the law helping to fund transit access, wildfire prevention, clean energy projects and sustainability initiatives for farmers and local tribes.

RELATED: Washington’s oil industry gears up for fight against new carbon pricing plan

Some of the more surprising funders of the campaign to preserve the state regulatory scheme include companies with a carbon impact like Amazon, Microsoft, and the oil company BP, which operates the largest refinery in the Northwest at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham.

“We supported the passage of the Climate Commitment Act and we support the campaign to convince the people of Washington to vote no on this initiative and keep the state’s carbon pricing program alive,” said Tom Wolf, BP America’s senior government affairs manager for the West Coast said.

The Washington Observer noted that BP's involvement was surprising because the company spent millions of dollars to defeat a similar carbon-pricing system that went before voters six years ago.

On its website, BP said, "Carbon pricing promotes emissions accountability and helps companies develop effective climate strategies together with regulatory agencies."

In fiscal year 2023, the first year that the auctions took place, the state’s Department of Ecology said some of the most significant expenditures funded by the Climate Commitment Act went to transit, safe routes to schools, and pedestrian and bicycle safety grants.

RELATED: Washington holds first carbon auction of 2024, with program's future in doubt

The auctions have raised $1.9 billion so far. But supporters of the pricing scheme say the initiative battle is creating uncertainty that caused the price for carbon emissions to plummet in the most recent auction.

Meanwhile supporters of Initiative 2117 say this new funding has come at the expense of drivers who face higher gas prices as a result of the legislation.

Initiative 2117 is supported by Republican backer Brian Heywood and the campaign Let’s Go Washington.

The campaign calls their initiative an attempt to “stop the hidden gas tax.” It would prohibit state agencies from imposing any kind of carbon tax credit trading, “regardless of whether the resulting increased costs are imposed on fuel recipients or fuel suppliers.”

It would repeal relevant sections of the 2021 Washington Climate Commitment Act.

The initiative to repeal is endorsed by the Washington Retail Association.

RELATED: WA initiative supporters turn in signatures to repeal capital gains tax, carbon auctions

So far the funding reported to the Public Disclosure Commission to defeat the initiative far exceeds funding to support its passage by voters. The "No on 2117" campaign has reported $4.8 million, including $1 million each from former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Tableau co-founder Chris Stolte. (The additional money pledged has not been reported to the PDC at this point.)

The campaign officially titled “Let’s Go Washington" (Sponsored by Brian Heywood) reports raising just under $600,000.

Heywood sponsored six initiatives originally, three of which were adopted by the state Legislature, leaving three to continue to the ballot. In addition to the proposed climate act repeal (I-2117), Let’s Go Washington is also supporting initiatives to repeal the state's capital gains tax (I-2109) and to allow people to opt out of the state’s long-term care coverage act (I-2124).

RELATED: Why Washington state Democrats passed 3 Republican-backed voter initiatives

Another Heywood-sponsored campaign on the PDC website called the “Taxpayers Accountability Alliance” said it is intended to support the three initiatives, but reports zero contributions at this point.