Campaign News
Hello carbon tax friends: This week’s news includes our new campaign office (complete with a wish list!), a wording contest (the winner gets a homemade strawberry-rhubarb pie!), and an update on the ballot measure we filed last week (!).
Campaign office: After weeks of hard work by Duncan Clauson, we’ve signed a lease and are moving into a campaign office at 1914 N 34th St Suite 407 (near Gasworks Park). Please take a look at this office wish list (microwave, filing cabinet, computers, office desks and chairs, folding tables and chairs, fans, power strips, office supplies, and a bicycle trailer for Duncan’s dog Bjorn!) and email [email protected] if you have anything you can donate!
Wording contest: Got an idea for how to best describe our measure in 3 to 5 words? We’re going to be printing posters for use by signature gatherers and want your ideas this week! (For one example, see the picture here from the I-937 campaign in 2006: “Sign here for / clean and / renewable / energy”. For another example, see the poster at the 2:20 mark of this great signature-gathering video from the I-502 campaign in 2012: “Sign here to / legalize, tax, / & regulate / marijuana”. Both examples come from signature-gathering guru Katherine Bragdon.) So: If you’ve got an idea of what our “Sign here to…” or “Sign here for…” language should be, post it in the comments section on the blog and or email me at [email protected]. Winner gets a homemade strawberry-rhubarb pie… and of course a poster ?
Legal update: One of our winter deliverables was to finalize our legal language, and I’m delighted to announce that our legal team succeeded: on W March 11 (the first day for filing Initiatives to the Legislature) we filed two copies of our ballot measure! (One is a back-up copy, just in case :). Legal language is here, and note that it will take a few weeks to get a ballot title and to print petitions, so it will be early April before we can start collecting signatures. (But you can pledge to collect signatures now!) Many many thanks to our legal team and a handful of other experts who helped craft our ballot language and provided feedback on all the drafts, including Jeff Goltz, a former chair of the state Utilities and Transportation Commission and a former Washington State deputy Attorney General; Sharon L. Nelson, another former UTC chair who is also a former president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and a former board chair of Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports); David Petteys, a tax law expert with Malone Law Group; Jim Lazar, an expert on Washington state electricity markets and much much more; and the amazing Bill Appel, who over the past years has put in over 100 hours of pro bono work as our technical advisor on legislation. (At $200 a hour that works out to an in-kind donation of over $20,000… how much of that can you match with your time and/or money? ?
Events: I’ll be at Town Hall tonight for a panel on “Putting a price on Washington’s climate pollution” with KC Golden, Todd Myers, and Nicole Keenan, and then on W March 18 Bill Appel and I will be at a luncheon presentation/discussion at the Seattle law firm of Miller Nash Graham & Dunn. (There might be a space or two for you at the W lunch, so email [email protected] ASAP if you want to come.) FYI last week I botched the date for the Earth Bistro with Sameer Ranade of WEC and Ellicott Dandy of OneAmerica: it’s in Seattle on Sunday March 15. (There’s also a “New Energy for a New Day” event in Anacortes on W March 25). Further afield it looks like I’ll be on Whidbey Island around April 22, Bremerton on April 25, and Bainbridge Island around April 29, so email me if you want to organize events or a house party while I’m in town! Details on most upcoming events are here.
Readings: Former Secretary of State George Shultz argues in the Washington Post that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is “A Reagan approach to climate change”. And more and more folks must be listening because Carbon Washington is only one part of a push for carbon taxes around the country, including Vermont (see this op-ed or follow the carbon tax bills, H.395 and H.412), Massachusetts (where a carbon tax bill, SD 285, has co-sponsorship from one-fifth of the state legislature), and of course Oregon (see especially the new video from Oregon Climate). On the cautionary side, here’s an expose about the national ethanol mandate, plus a wonky word to the wise about cap-and-trade systems from a new NBER paper from a team of economists lead by UC Berkeley’s Severin Borenstein: “The analysis suggests that cap-and-trade markets, as they have been established in California, the EU and elsewhere may be more likely to experience price volatility and extreme low or high prices than is generally recognized.” Finally, here in Washington State Governor Inslee’s cap-and-trade bill was debated in the House Appropriations Committee; note that since it’s a revenue bill it’s not subject to the same cut-off dates as non-revenue bills. Cap-and-trade (and CarbonWA) also featured in an article by Knute Berger at Crosscut. And CarbonWA’s Alex Lenferna (also active with Divest UW) was one of the activists quoted in the Seattle Times‘s “Student group seeks end to UW coal investments” and on KUOW.
As always comments welcome on the blog or via Facebook and Twitter.
March 16, 2015 at 2:39 pm
Sign here to:
“Tax Carbon & Slow Climate Change”
“Tax Carbon & Stop Climate Change”
“Make (carbon?) Pollution Pay”
“Slow Climate Change”
“Help Stop Climate Chage”
“Green Washington & Green the Planet”
“Reduce Sales Tax & Increase Pollution Tax”
March 16, 2015 at 2:58 pm
How about “Cut taxes, tax carbon instead”
March 16, 2015 at 3:36 pm
“Sign here to cut carbon pollution and taxes”
March 16, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Sign here to:
“curb/cut/slash/control/trim/reduce/shrink emissions… & your retail taxes!”
“protect/strengthen/restore/preserve/revitalize/secure/defend Washington’s future… & your pocketbook!”
March 16, 2015 at 6:46 pm
1.Sign here to:
Reduce Carbon the Tax Neutral Way
2. Sign here to support:
Painless Solution to Climate Change
March 16, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Sign here for
lower taxes
and clean air
March 16, 2015 at 8:43 pm
Sign here to
-shrink our carbon footprint
-lead on climate change
-reduce carbon pollution
-lower taxes and pollution
-make Washington less gassy
yeah, the last one is JK ?
March 17, 2015 at 7:50 am
From Dw on March 16:
Sign here for a simple carbon tax
Sign here for a tax to save the climate
Sign here for a planet Earth carbon tax
Sign here for carbon fee and dividend
Sign here for a COoling tax
Sign here to tax to stabilize climate
Sign here to standup to climate change
Sign here to have cool grandchildren
March 17, 2015 at 8:10 am
put a price on carbon pollution
lower carbon pollution with smarter taxes
reward renewable energy production and consumption
reward green energy producers and users
reward green energy/tax carbon pollution
March 17, 2015 at 8:12 am
From An on March 16: I love strawberry-rhubarb pie, so here’s my attempt at winning one:
“Sign here to put a price on carbon!”
March 17, 2015 at 8:14 am
From Ma on March 16: Here are some ideas:
Sign Here for Carbon Tax with Refund
Sign Here for Carbon Tax and Savings
Sign Here to Tax Carbon & Reduce Sales Tax
Sign Here to Tax Carbon & De-tax Sales
Sign Here to Tax Carbon & Share Revenue
Sign Here to Share Carbon Tax Revenue
Sign Here for Carbon Tax and Revenue Refund
Sign Here for Carbon Tax and Revenue Sharing
Sign Here to Tax Carbon and Receive Refund
Get Rewarded to Tax Carbon! Sign Here
Reward! / Wanted: Carbon Tax / Collect Your Share
March 17, 2015 at 8:16 am
From Ray on March 16:
Sign up here for:
– Carbon to pay its way.
– Energy alternatives.
Sign up here to:
– Level the energy playing field.
March 17, 2015 at 8:24 am
From Jo on March 17: A suggestion for the sign for petition gathering:
CARBON followed with a thumbs down drawing/
WASHINGTON followed by a thumbs up drawing
March 17, 2015 at 2:12 pm
Sign up here to
-cut sales tax; tax carbon.
-cut sales tax; tax CO2e.
-cut sales tax; tax GHG.
-reform regressive taxes; tax carbon.
-reform regressive taxes; tax CO2e.
-reform regressive taxes; tax GHG.
(The “2” in CO2e needs to be in subscript, but I can’t format it that way.)
March 17, 2015 at 6:56 pm
Sign here to save the world.
Sign here for clean air and lower taxes.
Sign here to save the world and money.
Sign here to save your: health, money, and climate.
Sign here to piss off Big Oil.
Sigh here to piss off the Koch brothers.
March 18, 2015 at 10:37 am
From Le on March 18:
Sign here to…
price carbon painlessly
Tax carbon/un-tax production
Reduce taxes; price carbon
Tax carbon, not productivity
March 18, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Tax (Corporate) Polluters, Not Citizens
Tax Carbon Pollution
Hold corporate polluters accountable
Give everyday people a tax break
March 19, 2015 at 2:18 pm
My idea: Sign here for // bipartisan // climate // action.
Laura’s joke idea: Sign here for // naked Kim // Kardashian // pictures.
March 25, 2015 at 10:22 pm
I vote for;
“Reduce sales tax & Increase pollution tax”
Thanks
Jeff
March 27, 2015 at 9:34 am
From SP on 3/19:
Sign here to:
tax polluters, not the 99%
account for carbon pollution
establish user fees for carbon
establish user fees for CO2
promote common sense climate stewardship
reduce pollution and promote stewardship
Tax equity and global stewardship
Stop pollution and unfair taxes
Reduce taxes for the poor and stop co2 pollution
Co2 user fees and tax fairness
Cut pollution and reduce income inequality
March 27, 2015 at 10:34 am
From Th on 3/24:
>> 1. “Sign here to make carbon payâ€?
>> 2. “Sign here to end carbon’s free lunchâ€?
>> 3. “Sign here to cool the world for kidsâ€?
>> 4. “Sign here to keep the world cooler”
>> 5. “Sign the carbon tax swap initiative hereâ€?
>> 6. “Sign here to help slow climate changeâ€?
>> 7. “Sign here to feel better about the futureâ€?
>> 8. “Sign here – You can help stop climate changeâ€?
>> 9. “Sign Initiative xxx here. Lower carbon – without raising taxesâ€?
>> 10. “Sign here to lower CO2 – without raising taxesâ€?
>> 11. “Sign here to help slow climate change – without raising taxesâ€?
>> 12. “Sign here to help slow global warming – without raising taxesâ€?
>> 13. “Sign Initiative xxx here. Encourage energy efficiencyâ€?
>> 14. “Sign Initiative xxx here. Support wind and solar energyâ€?
>> 15. “Sign here to Lower CO2 pollution – Sign the carbon swap initiativeâ€?
>> 16. “Sign here toTax carbon, not foodâ€?
>> 17. “Sign here toTake climate action nowâ€?
>> 18. “Sign here to fight climate changeâ€?
>> 19. “Sign here to Curb carbon emissionsâ€?
>> 20. “Sign here – Just say no to carbonâ€?
>> 21. “Sign here – Carbon is a taxing issue.â€?