Millions of dollars are still available to refund Washington state farmers who have been overcharged for fuel thanks to the state’s new carbon pricing scheme.
The so-called Climate Commitment Act was supposed to exempt agriculture, and when the state Department of Ecology failed to do that, the legislature earmarked $30 million to refund farmers and farming truckers.
But, as state Department of Licensing official Jennifer Clawson told The Farming Show host Dillon Honcoop, much of that money has so far gone unclaimed, and she’s encouraging farmers to still register for their refunds.
“We’re trying to get the word out there so that as harvest wraps up they know it’s still available, and we still have money available in this fund set aside,” said Clawson.
In fact, about $25 million in the fund remains unclaimed, according to Clawson.
She’s urging farmers and truckers who haul farm goods to register on the DOL website to claim their refund dollars soon, because the money is first-come, first-served, and the refunds are only for fuel that was used in 2023.
Applicants need to verify their status as a farm or farm-related trucking, and show how many gallons of fuel they used in the calendar year 2023, Clawson said.
Refund payments can be as high as $4,500, depending on which one of four tiers applicants fall into based on their 2023 fuel use.
A flurry of applications came in when the program first opened in August, but the number of incoming applications has steadily declined since, according to Clawson.
“We would like people to take advantage of it sooner than later,” she said, “and it is a first-come first-served, so when the money is gone, we do not have additional money allocated for it yet.”