Putting a Price on Carbon
The Pacific Coast is already experiencing the devastating effects of climate change, from wildfires burning homes and threatening whole communities to drought hurting our farmers and ocean acidification rocking our shellfish industry. To curb dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and combat the effects of a changing climate, we are committed to accounting for the costs of carbon pollution in our jurisdictions and working nationally and globally to advance carbon pricing based on successful models.
HIGHLIGHTS
Carbon Pricing Programs Across the Pacific Coast
California’s Cap-and-Trade Program caps emissions across the power, industrial, and transportation fuel sectors, ensuring pollution declines over time. Since 2013, it has also generated more than $32 billion in auction revenues, which are invested in clean transportation, climate resilience, affordable housing, and disadvantaged communities. Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, launched in 2023, places a declining cap on emissions from large emitters and fuel suppliers. It has already raised over $3 billion for investments in clean mobility, climate resilience, Tribal communities, and overburdened populations. Oregon’s Climate Protection Program, reinstated in 2023, sets an economy-wide cap designed to cut covered emissions by 50% by 2035 and 90% by 2050. British Columbia repealed its consumer carbon tax in 2025 but continues carbon pricing for large industrial emitters; the province’s earlier revenue-neutral tax was one of the most influential models in North America, reducing fossil fuel use while supporting economic growth.
