The numbers from credible organizations show the state of Washington has high gas prices. How high? The highest. According to AAA, the average cost of gas in the state is $4.95 per gallon. GasBuddy recently reported that the northernmost west coast state has the highest prices in the country. Prices are higher than in California. National average gas prices in the United States have went up to $3.565 per gallon from $3.543 a week ago.
Oil and gas companies are excited that gasoline and diesel prices have started rising thanks to soaring crude prices. The high earning oil markets are looking to build on three straight weeks of increases, which coincides with the oil price rally.
Republicans in Washington are blaiming the high gas prices on Washington programs supported by the governor that makes it expensive to do business as an oil company in the state. They mention his recently passed cap and invest program. The program requires companies to pay for how much carbon they release. It creates a limited number of carbon permits to be auctioned at least four times a year.
Lawmakers on the other side of the debate argue that money the state receives from the program is set to go towards environmental-related programs. The cost is meant to help Washington decarbonize in an effort to reduce record levels of heat, droughts, wildfires, and wildfire smoke.
Gov. Jay Inslee said recently that the high fuel costs were not due to the new cap-and-trade program implemented in January, but “price gouging” by oil and gas companies. He said that 80 cents of profit on every gallon goes to the oil and gas companies. “I think the Legislature needs to look at this issue to prevent some of this price gouging. The author of these prices are the oil and gas companies,” he said in an interview. The 80 cents per gallon profit margin number is derived from the OPIS’s Retail Fuel Watch.
Still, 43 state lawmakers called on Washington State’s Department of Ecology to step in and help bring down prices. The lawmakers signed a letter urging the Department of Ecology to act on the eight rule changes to the state’s cap and invest program. They are as follows:
• Make it easier to comply with emissions targets.
• Increase the supply of allowances.
• Adjust the Allowance Price Containment Reserve (APCR) auction floor price.
• Allocate a greater number of no-cost allowances.
• Expand the categories of Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed (EITE) companies.
• Lower the price ceiling.
• Develop a system to easily honor fuel exemptions.
• Adopt a temporary rule that suspends the program in order to lower fuel prices.
On the other side of the country, the average gas prices in Tampa have dropped by 7.7 cents per gallon in the last week. This put their average at $3.38 per gallon today according to GasBuddy’s survey of 1,260 stations in the region. The cheapest gas station in Tampa $2.77 per gallon on Sunday, while the most expensive was at $3.75 per gallon.
