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Bulk Discounts for Polluters, Update

Posted by Alan Durning

03/13/2008 10:00 AM

Olympia acts on Sightline report.

Last summer, analyst Dave Kershner and I published a report documenting the way one of Washington’s few existing pollution taxes was undermined by its own poor design: it gives bulk discounts for polluters.

Well, state representative Zack Hudgins won $80,000 in the state budget to help craft a smarter hazardous waste policy. The money will fund a “stakeholder advisory committee” to advise the state on how to align its hazardous waste fee with its pollution prevention goals.

It’s a welcome step forward on an issue that’s had too-little attention. And the committee’s job isn’t hard: it can promote the simple, common-sense steps Dave and I recommended in the report. In particular, Washington should eliminate the limit on how much any single facility can pay in hazardous waste planning fees.

3/13 update by Eric: Over at the Seattle P-I's environmental blog, reporter Lisa Stiffler has nice coverage of the issue, plus a link to her original article -- the one that broke the story.

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Comments

Posted by Bob Freeman 03/13/2008 06:09 PM

Another kind of bulk discounts for polluters exists in Washington. We've noticed when taking our sailboat into marinas during the summer that boats that buy over a certain amount of fuel (typically 100 gallons) are entitled to a lower price per gallon at some marinas. That's a "carbon subsidy". Why not a carbon tax instead?

Posted by Alan Durning 03/13/2008 09:26 PM

Bob,

Wow. I've never heard of bulk discounts for fuel. Of course, the case we wrote about is a matter of state law, while the marinas are private businesses. A carbon tax would be good, though in Washington state a cap and trade system is politically more likely.

Posted by Bob Freeman 03/14/2008 11:39 AM

Alan,
Some of the marinas are run by local port authorities (such as the Port of Port Townsend). The fuel dock may be run as a concession, but the elected port commissioners should be responsible for the business practices of their concessionaires in my opinion. The ports are collectively represented by the Washington Public Ports Association (http://www.washingtonports.org/). Some ports don't offer a fuel discount, some do.

Offering a discount for quantity purchases is a traditional buyer incentive, but one that doesn't make sense any more in the case of carbon-based fuels.