Thanks for your post-mortem on Initiative 1631 (“What Killed Washington’s Carbon Tax?” HCN, 1/21/19). I think you missed one of the main reasons it failed. 1631’s design made it as much a “social justice” initiative as a climate initiative. Talk with some of those who backed Initiative 732, including Audubon. The Sierra Club and 350.org killed 732 because it didn’t meet their demands for carve-outs for the social justice movement. 1631 met those demands but was seen by most voters as a slush fund for special interests, not a climate solution. As long as the social justice folks conflate their wishes with meaningful climate action, I think we will be in gridlock.
David Engel
Del Mar, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Climate conflations.
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