John Braun: Look no further than Olympia for the true cause of high energy costs
Friday, April 17, 2026
Who’s most responsible for the high cost of filling your fuel tank and paying for the energy your home needs?
Jay Inslee wants you to put the blame solely on the White House. In recent national media interviews, our state’s former chief executive has tried to connect high gas prices — and Washington’s are third-worst in the nation, at around $1.30 per gallon over the national average — to the conflict with Iran.
While that has obviously influenced fuel prices, its effect will be temporary. Washington families have more to worry about from the unaffordable energy policies forced upon our state by Inslee himself and the Democrats who voted for his political agenda. Until there’s a change of attitude in Olympia, we’re stuck with those costly decisions.
The financial pain is coming primarily from three policies, all requested by the former governor. One is what Democrats call the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), which will likely drive up power costs in our state for many years to come.
The others are the cap-and-tax money grab formally called the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and the so-called low-carbon fuel standard.
Years ago, when Inslee was hinting at a run for the presidency, political observers noted he didn’t have a climate-policy win to support his campaign message.
Going into the 2019 legislative session, Inslee asked legislative Democrats to pass what became the CETA. The promise it made was a climate activist’s fantasy: make Washington’s electricity supply completely carbon-neutral by 2030 and completely carbon-free by 2045.
Inslee and other supporters claimed their policy would transition our state to a clean, reliable and affordable energy future. Republicans called them on that, especially the affordability part.
When the bill came to the floor of the Senate, our late colleague from Whatcom County, Sen. Doug Ericksen, argued legislators shouldn’t punish ratepayers by “artificially inflating their rates to achieve a goal that will have absolutely no influence on world climate.”
It didn’t matter. Inslee needed something to show when campaigning. Senate Democrats finished pushing the bill through on the morning of March 1, 2019. Minutes after that vote took place at the Capitol, the governor stepped to a microphone in Seattle and announced he was running for president.
A news report described the passage of the CETA as “wind in the sails” of Inslee’s candidacy. His campaign was dead less than six months later.
Meanwhile, families here are still paying the price for that partisan political gift – like the nearly 1.25 million customers in part or all of eight Washington counties who get their electricity from Puget Sound Energy.
When it recently asked for regulatory permission to raise electricity rates nearly 30% over the next three years, PSE pointed at the CETA and the 2030 deadline as a driving factor behind its request.
That’s not the “affordable” energy future our state was promised — but then legislative Democrats are known for piling regressive, unaffordable taxes and fees on the backs of working Washingtonians.
The rate increases PSE wants are on top of the 12% increase in electric rates and 7% hike in natural-gas prices imposed by the utility at the start of 2026. Those were due in part to regulatory costs associated with the Climate Commitment Act, passed in 2021.
Of course, the CCA is known more for its effect on the price at the pump. The latest calculations I’ve seen have it adding a total of 58 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas and 66 cents for a gallon of diesel.
That is much more than the increase of “pennies” Inslee dishonestly predicted in 2022, before the cap-and-tax law took effect.
Meanwhile, the latest version of the Democrats’ so-called low-carbon fuel standard, first adopted in 2021 — is projected to add 64 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas and 79 cents to a gallon of diesel as of 2031.
These expensive policies help to bring perspective to Inslee’s recent rants about the short-term, Iran-related bump in fuel prices.
Go back to February 26. The American Automobile Association website reported the national average price of regular gas had gone up five cents from the week before, likely because refineries were moving toward producing the costlier summer blend of fuel.
This was two days before the start of the conflict with Iran. The national average then was $2.98 per gallon. Now aaa.com shows it costing over $4.
Even if the American military action in the Strait of Hormuz is behind much of what is sure to be a temporary increase, here’s the important takeaway: $4 and change for a gallon of gas is still noticeably less than the $4.35 per gallon Washingtonians were already paying on Feb. 26. That was two days before the conflict with Iran even began.
Our state’s high energy costs are among the reasons living here has become unaffordable. They are regressive, hitting middle- and lower-income families harder. The Iran conflict had nothing to do with setting the costly carbon-related mandates imposed on utilities in our state.
It’s ridiculous that Inslee and other Democrats are now criticizing the high price of gas when their carbon taxes have consistently put Washington first, second or third on the nation’s list of worst gas prices. Besides, they see unaffordable fuel as a good thing, if the cost keeps you from buying it.
When you cringe at the thought of opening your power bill or the cost of filling up, keep in mind that our state’s carbon taxes are the major driver of consistently unaffordable energy prices. This is not a flaw in the system — it’s how the system is designed. There’s no need to look any further than Olympia and the bad policies of the Democrats who have run it for too long. This is not how our state does better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.