Washington, Oregon plan to emulate B.C.’s carbon tax

The governments of B.C., Oregon, Washington and California are joining forces to combat climate change.

In a meeting in San Francisco, the Governors of Washington and Oregon announced they’ll be instituting a carbon-pricing system, much like B.C.’s carbon tax.

British Columbians have already been paying the tax for seven years, which adds about seven cents a litre to the price of gas.

California introduced a similar carbon tax earlier this year. The move is being touted as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses, without harming the economy.

“Now that we have had this regime in place for these years, we have the evidence,” said B.C.’s environment minister Mary Polak at the meeting in San Francisco.

“We bucked the trend in Canada, our province had a greater GDP growth, along with a population growth, at the same time, as our consumption of fossil fuels declined in every single form.”