Initiative 732 seeks to impose a carbon emission tax on fossil fuels that would start at $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted, rising to $25 per ton in 2018 and rising at 3.5 percent per year until it reaches $100 per ton.

Just how would this translate into increases in the price of gasoline in our state?

The burning of one pound of gasoline releases 3.1 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because the carbon which is bound to lightweight hydrogen in gasoline becomes attached to the much heavier oxygen from the air during the combustion process. So it takes about 86.4 gallons of gasoline to produce a ton of carbon dioxide.

A carbon emission tax of $15 per ton of carbon dioxide thus translates to a gasoline tax of 17.4 cents per gallon. Since our state gasoline tax is now 44.5 cents a gallon, this amounts to a 39 percent increase in the state tax on gasoline. Initiative 732 would also provide a reduction in the state sales tax from 6.5 to 6 percent. This amounts to an 8 percent reduction in the state sales tax.

Once the carbon tax increases to $25 per ton of carbon dioxide, the tax on gasoline will increase to 29 cents per gallon, and a carbon tax of $100 per ton of carbon dioxide equates to a gasoline tax of $1.16 per gallon.

Phil Cassady

Snoqualmie