Title: Washington state lawmakers seek to approve nation’s first carbon fee

Citation:

Lam, K. (2019, February 21). Washington state lawmakers seek to approve nation’s first carbon fee. USA Today. Retrieved from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/21/washington-state-proposes-carbon-fee-gas-tax/2945489002/

• Source: USA Today
• What: A carbon fee of $15 per ton of carbon and an increase in gas prices.
• Who: Washington State! Multiple other states have proposed similar policies, but this is Washington’s third time trying to pass this fee.
• Where: Washington State, but affects US policy and all of humanity.
• Why: Greenhouse gas emissions are linked to global warming. Climate change impacts are only intensifying which is leading to extreme weather, poor air quality, and food shortages.
• When: The last attempt was turned down in 2018.
• Impact/Relevance to Society: This impacts all 3 pillars of sustainability. The economic side is that this fee is projected to raise $7.9 billion over the course of 10 years. Since this is not a tax, the money does not go to the hands of the government but the hands of the people proposing this fee. They stated that the money would go towards other efforts to continue to help the environment. The social aspect is that any effort to slow down climate change will help global health. Lastly, the environmental side is that this will hopefully slow climate change down and be a starting point for other policy regarding the environment.
• Relevance to Course: This article relates to the first couple of conversations in class about sustainability and more importantly how more developed countries are the ones that are affecting the environment directly, but we do not feel the repercussions of our actions, the lesser developed countries do. Also more recently since we just started the lecture on pollution this ties into the other environmental regulations and policies that have been passed and have had positive outcomes.
• Any questions raised? – What will the effect be of increased gas prices? Who would not want this fee passed?

“Andrew Wheeler, Who Continued Environmental Rollbacks, Is Confirmed to Lead EPA”

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/climate/andrew-wheeler-epa-confirmation.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront.

• The source of the article I chose was The New York Times.
• The main point of this article was to discuss the policies of the newly elected administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and compare them to the previous administrator, to get a better feel for how the new administrator will be handling the countries environmental issues.
• As of February 28^th, 2019, Andrew Wheeler won the Senate vote to lead the EPA. Wheeler has been acting administrator since July 2018, following the resignation of the former administrator, Scott Pruitt.
• It is noted in the article that while there seem to be many things similar between the policies and views of both administrators, Wheeler has brought a new demeanor to the agency. In conclusion, the biggest difference between both administrators being that Wheeler has spent more time as a Washington insider and will be less likely to go out, for lack of a better term, the way Pruitt was forced into resignation.
• This article is relevant to society because most, if not all, environmental issues affect everyone worldwide. Those in the government and EPA have the power to make the biggest changes through policy and law to combat these issues as a nation.
• This article makes a connection with the course, as we just recently started learning about pollution and will continue into climate science, in showing some of who has the power to change, make, and repeal the policies that regulate several types of pollution and other impactful issues on the environment.