Opinion: A tax scam based on a climate lie

Nancy Churchill argues the CCA costs families 52+ cents per gallon while missing every emissions target.

Nancy Churchill says it’s time to repeal the Climate Commitment Act

Nancy Churchill
Dangerous Rhetoric

Aren’t you tired of the endless climate lies coming out of Olympia? Politicians have spent years scaring Washington families into accepting higher taxes, soaring energy costs, and government control over our daily lives. They claim man-made global warming is an existential threat, that carbon markets will fix it, and that the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) is delivering results.

Nancy Churchill

The data tells a different story: a failing program built on exaggeration, delivering political payoffs instead of environmental wins while crushing working families with hidden costs.

It’s time to repeal the CCA and demand better, more effective solutions that actually serve working families and our climate goals.

Lie #1: Man-caused global warming is an existential threat

The foundation of the entire CCA scheme is the biggest lie of all. Dr. Willie Soon and Gorilla Science have exposed “The Big Climate Lie,” showing through rigorous analysis that the so-called existential threat does not hold up under real scientific scrutiny.

The infamous hockey stick graph that drove much of the panic has been discredited. As Tom Nelson at Gorilla Science documented, “There is a mountain of scientific evidence that shows this graph to be wrong.” Natural climate variability, solar influences, and historical data paint a far less alarming picture than the one sold to justify massive taxation and regulation. If the core threat is overstated, the entire policy house of cards collapses.

Lie #2: Washington’s carbon markets will help solve global warming

PNW Conservative points out that China currently has 1,200 coal power plants in operation and emits more CO2 than the US, India, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Germany & Canada COMBINED. But every little bit helps… right? Worth your sacrifice… right? Wrong.

Todd Myers at the Washington Policy Center examined the “Washington State Air Quality in Overburdened Communities Grant” in an April 22, 2026 analysis. Of 21 funded projects, only one was likely to reduce actual air pollution.

The rest supported “community outreach,” political advocacy for legislation like the HEAL Act, $2,000 stipends for advisory board members, distribution of 50 refurbished bicycles with maintenance classes for middle schoolers, and electric bike subsidies that showed no measurable air quality benefit.

A wood-stove replacement program — aimed at a real particulate source — replaced zero stoves because homeowners refused to give them up.

If we’re not actually improving air quality then how are we solving global warming? This is not climate action. It is patronage politics funded by your mandatory “climate” payments.

Lie #3: The CCA is working!

The most insulting claim is that the CCA is successfully reducing emissions. The Washington Policy Center exposed how political spin in the state’s CO₂ emissions reports masks clear policy failure. Sadly, It took a lawsuit to force the Department of Ecology to release the legally required data.

The results from the 2022 data were devastating: emissions rose in every sector except electricity, which only saw a temporary drop thanks to high snowpack and hydropower. Washington will miss its 2030 targets badly. Meeting them would require COVID-scale emissions reductions every other year through 2030. Despite this, officials continue gaslighting taxpayers that billions in new regulations and taxes are working. They are not.

The hidden costs crushing families

The financial burden is real and growing. As Rip Wheeler explained, gas prices hit painful levels in April 2026 partly because the CCA acts as a hidden surcharge. Fuel suppliers buy carbon allowances that get passed directly to consumers — about 52 cents per gallon on gas and 63 cents on diesel, on top of the existing 49.4-cent state fuel tax. That means over one dollar per gallon in government climate mandates before buying fuel itself. For average families, this “climate fee” competes with groceries, rent, and other basics.

Wheeler recommends using a simple ‘5-Why analysis’ to reveal the problem: Why the extra cost? To reduce CO₂. Why $2 billion a year? To fund green projects. Why the massive inefficiency? Because 58% of funding — often 80-100% in many grants — goes to administrative overhead, salaries, and activist groups rather than measurable results.

Independent audits show real costs near $395 per metric ton of CO₂ reduced, versus the state’s $40 claim. Even accepting a $99 per ton social cost of carbon, the state spends nearly four times the alleged harm prevented. This is fiscal insanity.

Follow the money: A slush fund protected by virtue

Follow the money and the CCA’s core problem becomes clear. What was sold as a bold climate solution has too often operated as an unaccountable slush fund that prioritizes insiders, overhead, and connected organizations while shielding itself with the language of environmental virtue. It drives up costs across retail goods, energy, and construction — with especially painful ripple effects on agriculture.

Higher fuel, transport, and input expenses are raising food prices for everyone, hitting family farms and rural communities hardest. In a state already burdened by some of the nation’s highest living costs, these added burdens make Washington even less affordable for working families, hourly workers, and the agricultural backbone of our economy. While bureaucracies grow and well-connected nonprofits receive steady funding, everyday taxpayers and our farming communities bear the cost of goals that remain largely unmet.

We deserve a government that solves real problems with high-return solutions, not one that profits from fear while delivering failure. The CCA has become an expensive exercise in grift that hurts the very people it claims to help.

Repeal the CCA now

The climate scare is built on lies. The carbon market is a scam. The CCA is a failing, costly program that inflates prices without delivering results. Repeal the hidden gas tax. End the grift.

Ask every state politician: Will you work to repeal the CCA? If they say “no,” we need to replace them. Elect Republicans at every level who will prioritize working families over the climate-industrial complex.

Washington families cannot afford another year of these dangerous lies. Let’s work to repeal the CCA before it does more damage to our economy and our way of life.

Nancy Churchill is a writer, educator, and conservative activist in rural eastern Washington state. She chairs the Ferry County Republican Party and advocates for effective citizen influence through Influencing Olympia Effectively. She may be reached at DangerousRhetoric@pm.me. The opinions expressed in Dangerous Rhetoric are her own. Dangerous Rhetoric is available on Substack and X.