Gas Rebate of $200 Could Be Paid in One State

Car owners in Washington state could be receiving more than $200 if a gasoline rebate passes through the state legislature.

Republican lawmakers proposed the one-time rebate in response to the state's cap-and-trade program's gas price hikes. To lower carbon emissions, Washington hiked gas prices last year, resulting in an excess of $1.3 billion in state revenue. Now, GOP state Representatives April Connors and Mary Dye are proposing to give the extra money back to car owners who felt the strain of the skyrocketed gas prices.

Washington's gas prices are still among the most expensive in the country, averaging around $4.06 per gallon.

If the rebate passes, registered vehicle owners in the state would see a $214 check, Connors told Newsweek. Families with two cars would get double that. She said her constituents, many of them senior citizens, routinely tell her the gas hikes caused them to make significant cuts to their grocery budgets.

"A senior said they had to limit all of their trips, from going to the grocery store to picking up prescriptions, and they were having to combine their trips into one drive," Connors told Newsweek. "They said that they felt like they were living back in the days of COVID where they were stuck at home and they couldn't get out of the house."

Because Washington saw the $1.3 billion excess, Connors said, the money should be given back to residents who shouldered the pain of the initial price hikes.

"We're not touching the original intent of what Washington was trying to do with the Climate Commitment Act, which was to help with greenhouse gas emissions," she said. "We're just taking excess revenue, which was 1.3 billion, divided up by Washington drivers."

From students driving to work and school to senior citizens pressed for cash in retirement, the gas hikes were felt by hardworking Washington residents, Dye said.

"Our college students trying to get to work and school, they have very tight budgets," Dye told Newsweek. "This takes a real chunk out of their ability to earn enough when they're commuting back and forth to work and school. It hurts the senior citizens on fixed incomes."

"The people that are doing work every day and the families that are doing work every day, it just takes it right out of their pocket and unnecessarily so because they stated what they needed in the Climate Act to accomplish their goals. And yet the formulas were incorrect, and I think it's right to give the money back to the working families of Washington state."

Some lawmakers are against the rebate going through, however. Senator Jamie Pedersen, who sponsored the cap-and-trade program, said the rebate goes against the goal of the initial carbon emission hikes, which aimed to get people to use less gas.

"I think it's pretty unlikely that we're going to divide up all of the money that we got from the Climate Commitment Act, all the excess revenue, and give it back to people based on how much gas was consumed in the state," Pedersen said, as reported by KOMO-TV Seattle. "We want people to take transit, we want people to use electric vehicles, or walk or bike."

Mark Sexauer, a Seattle resident in the construction industry, said the rebate would be a big help at his company, which operates 93 vehicles.

"Any change in gas price affects our construction company, often significantly," Sexauer told Newsweek. "A rebate check would only benefit us as our industry is experiencing many different financial challenges. I'm skeptical this will pass but I'm glad there are people in office thinking about how to send money back as 99 percent of the time it seems like the other way around."

Connors said since they first discussed the rebate in July, there's been significant conversation about it, and she hopes they can push the hand of the majority Democratic Party in Washington.

"I think there's some appetite for what's going on," Connors said. "I think that they're feeling a lot of pressure."

It is unclear when residents can expect an update on the rebate, but if passed, it would go into effect in July.