We have no Planet B

Initiative 1631 volunteers recently submitted more than 375,000 petition signatures to Olympia. We needed 260,000 to qualify for November’s ballot. Thank you to all who gathered and to all who signed.

This is the most popular initiative in Washington’s history, with more than 200 supporting organizations.

Native American tribes, labor and health care workers, conservationists, faith groups, businesses and others have all united to demand that polluters who are dumping carbon dioxide into our atmosphere and causing global warming should finally have to pay a price, a $15/metric ton fee, starting in 2020.

Taxes are spent as Olympia’s politicians desire, but I-1631’s fee must be spent for the purpose it was collected: improving Washington’s environment. If Washington voters reject the fossil fuel industry spending millions of dollars in advertising to avoid being held accountable for their pollution, and pass I-1631, we can expect an estimated annual revenue of more than 1 billion dollars to invest in clean water, clean air, healthy forests, wildfire and drought reduction, creating around 40,000 new jobs in solar and wind energy, support for communities to become more energy efficient, etc, etc.

Please protect our fragile atmosphere. Please vote yes on 1-1631. There is no Planet B.

Wm. Lamont Worden

Greenacres

Due to a transcription error, the phrase “$15/metric ton fee” was inadvertently entered into our system and published as “$15/metric ton free” in an earlier version of this letter.