Stand-Up Economist: Transportation and climate bills

Yoram Bauman:

In Oregon there are four carbon tax bills under consideration. I haven’t gone into the details, but if you want to then here’s the bills: HB 2497 (one of two from the House Revenue Committee); HB 2792 (Energy and Environment Committee, chaired by awesome Rep Jules Bailey); HB 2874 (the other House Revenue Committee bill); and SB 537 (carbon tax study bill). Go Oregon! ...

Finally, here in Washington there are some details on Judy Clibborn’s transportation package. See the links at the bottom of her press release, especially the Fact Sheet showing that half the funds go to new projects (I-5, I-90, 167, 509, 395) and only 7% goes to maintenance of the state system. That’s only $631m for maintenance of the state system despite the need (identified by Connecting Washington) of $3.1 billion. (And of course Connecting Washington identified $4.9 billion in maintenance needs at the city and county levels; Clibborn’s proposal provides $675m in assistance.) BTW, Sightline’s Clark Williams-Derry reminds me of their estimate that each new lane-mile of urban highway creates up to 186,500 tons of CO2 over 50 years.