Hello, carbon tax friends. If this is your first email newsletter, welcome, and be sure to check out yeson732.org, visit our FAQ page, or join a chapter near you to be a part of the movement!
“If there was one thing I would like to see, it would be for us to be able to price the cost of carbon emissions.”
- That’s President Obama responding to a question from Thomas Friedman about the single most important thing we can do to solve climate change.
- That’s from a forthcoming episode in the new season of Years of Living Dangerously, which will begin airing in October and which focuses on their new #PutAPriceOnIt campaign.
- That’s the episode that will also feature Carbon Washington and I-732.
- That’s because we are at the forefront of the movement to put a price of carbon.
- That’s why you should donate now to support I-732. We’re not just talking about carbon pricing, we’re doing it. We’ve got 18 weeks until Election Day. We need your help. Our median donation is about $50, so no amount is too small… thank you!!
Other ways to help
- Jump on the phone to call voters in your area or a key county. Just click here to get started. (There’s instructions and an intro video; email any of our staff or [email protected] if you have questions.)
- Walk your neighborhood on your own or join a local team in passing out flyers and having conversations with your neighbors about I-732.
- Write a thank-you note to your legislator if they have endorsed, or ask them to join you in supporting I-732 if they haven’t. See the most recent list here, and big thanks to Jim Moeller [D-Vancouver, Speaker Pro Tem of the state House and now running for U.S. Congress] for his endorsement! Here’s what Representative Moeller has to say about I-732:
“Passing I-732 would let Washington state set the national example of putting a price on carbon emissions. Do you want to lower the sales tax by 1%, and make large-scale polluters pay their fair share instead? Do you want to incentivize green energy, while providing a just transition to lower-income families? (Are you tired of government gridlock and inaction on this issue?) Let’s act on climate now, with the plan that will jump-start our future with clean energy. Let’s make history. Vote YES on I-732.“
In the news and LTE shout-out.
This week we’ve got Letters to the Editor (LTEs) from Kara Smith in the Columbian, Mariana Garcia in the Redmond Reporter, and Sara Cate in the Yakima Herald. Great work! (And we need a steady stream of these to land across the state so please get started on one and email us a copy, get drafting help, or let us know if its printed by emailing [email protected].)
Elsewhere, there’s a lot in the news about Governor Inslee’s decision to appeal the “climate kids” lawsuit: see The Stranger and Cascadia Planet. Nationally, the Democratic Party platform committee rejected the call for a carbon tax. [The video discussion is in the 5:38:00 – 5:50:00 window here, starting with Bill McKibben.] Those articles just go to show that I-732 isn’t the only point of internal disagreement about climate action; see also this NYT article about the rift between labor and environmentalists. (The NYT also notes that “[Trump’s views] on trade, immigration, guns and the environment have considerable support from white working-class Democrats.”) But remember that we have a moral obligation to take action on climate, and the sooner we start the better off things will be for us and for future generations: Carbon Brief has this Carbon Countdown graphic and the associated analysis: “Only five years left before 1.5C carbon budget is blown”. (On a lighter note, here’s a great Tom Toles cartoon about the need to act.)
Volunteer spot: This could be you!
This week we want to give a shout out to Ian Crozier! He’s off to a great start calling Washington State voters and telling them about I-732. We will be having hundreds of thousands of great conversations with voters between now and November so be sure to register and start making calls! Just click here to get started.
Let’s win!
Yoram and the Yes on 732 team
