Washington Farm Bureau and the Washington Trucking Associations issue the Department of Ecology with a formal Petition for Review.
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The beginning of 2023 brought with it the implementation of the Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The CCA grants authority to the Department of Ecology (DOE) to establish a cap and invest program. The program, which applies a carbon price to the purchase of certain fuels, allows for specific exemptions on fuels purchased for agricultural purposes. Despite the law’s explicit exemption for agriculture, farm and ranch operations throughout the state continue to be subjected to the carbon price.
The CCA further dictates that the DOE will institute a method to record and monitor the appropriate exemptions. Unfortunately, DOE has not created the necessary tracking mechanism by which to ensure agriculture’s exemption is properly processed and applied. This failure not only impacts the agriculture industry but imposes an inappropriate burden on other third-party industries, such as trucking, which expends fuel for the transportation of agricultural commodities.
Over the past six months, numerous attempts have been made to address this growing issue. During the 2023 legislative session, legislators on both sides of the aisle made attempts to craft a legislative fix to this damaging oversight. Unfortunately, all efforts proved futile, and the legislature adjourned without providing the necessary relief. Yet, advocacy efforts have remained constant as Washington Farm Bureau (WFB) and Washington Trucking Associations (WTA) work to see that the state follows through on its obligation to agriculture.
Last week, counsel for both WFB and WTA authored a letter issuing a formal Petition for Review to DOE requesting rulemaking “to ensure that motor vehicle fuel used exclusively for agricultural purposes and fuels used for transporting agriculture products on public highways are exempt from coverage under the climate commitment act." The letter specifically cites the RCW language outlining the exemptions and the obligations of DOE to ensure agriculture's exemption is protected.
The Petition states that the rules outlined in the CCA’s language “are woefully deficient in establishing an adequate process to exempt agricultural related fuel from CCA related charges.”
It is estimated that the agricultural sector alone will be illegally overcharged $74 million due to this exemption not being recognized. With the Petition for Review submitted, DOE has 60 days to respond.
