Washington voters likely to retain state carbon market, poll shows

By Anne C. Mulkern | 10/21/2024 06:18 AM EDT

But many voters remain undecided on Initiative 2117, a November ballot measure that would end the state’s “cap-and-invest” program.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is supporting an effort to maintain Washington state's carbon market.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has given $1 million to a campaign trying to defeat a November ballot measure that would discontinue Washington state's carbon market. AP/Andres Kudacki

Washington state’s carbon market appears likely to survive a November ballot measure to kill it, a new poll shows.

A Cascade PBS/Elway poll found 46 percent of likely voters opposed a ballot initiative that would discontinue the market and 31 percent supported it. Nearly a quarter of voters remained undecided, according to the poll, conducted from Oct. 8 to Oct. 12.

Initiative 2117 on next month’s ballot would repeal the Washington climate law that authorized the state to create a carbon-trading market, which the state calls “cap-and-invest.”

The program forces the biggest polluters to either cut their greenhouse gas emissions below annual limits or to pay environmental penalties known as “allowances.”

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