Did Washington’s Climate Commitment Act add 50 cents to a gallon of gas in July 2023?

Per-gallon gas prices increased by 50 cents in June and remained at 50 cents for July. Several factors caused gas prices to spike, including the Climate Commitment Act (CCA).

The 2021 Climate Commitment Act requires fuel suppliers and large emitters to buy carbon offsets to reduce carbon emissions. Those emitters pass those costs to consumers, which increases fuel costs. The CCA’s first cost-related carbon offset auction was late February 2023. The first price increase hit in June. During the summer of 2023, for example, the CO2 price was $56.01, which equates to 49.8 cents per gallon. 

MNNG changed the answer from no to yes after a conversation with Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers, who detailed the cost complexity of the calculations and shared a 2025 non-partisan legislative analysis of California’s cap-and-trade system, which is nearly identical to Washington’s.