Gas prices: ‘We have the tools to fight back’

Re: “Will high gas prices derail WA’s climate policy?” [Oct. 8, Local News]:

The article on fuel costs means that “there’s little that may be carried out” about oil firm worth gouging. Not so: There’s one devastatingly efficient technique we are able to use to place downward stress on fuel costs and cut back the excessive prices of oil dependence: decreasing demand.

That is our ace within the gap — the true energy we’ve got as customers over the oil cartel. Once we use much less by giving ourselves extra inexpensive transportation selections, we put downward stress on costs. We take again our cash and spend money on our communities as a substitute of draining our native economies to pay for windfall oil earnings.

That’s precisely what the Local weather Dedication Act does. By capping carbon, it places us on a gentle, science-based path to scale back emissions and oil dependence over time. And by charging polluters for the remaining emissions, we return a few of our gas invoice to our communities within the type of extra economical transportation choices.

With or with no local weather coverage, oil corporations will at all times cost as a lot as they’ll to maximise their earnings. With higher alternate options — just like the clear transportation selections funded by the Local weather Dedication Act’s air pollution charges — we’ve got the instruments to combat again.

KC Golden, Seattle