SEATTLE — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has given $1 million to a November ballot measure in Washington state that would charge a fee on carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
Gates wrote in a blog post recently that he would contribute to the Yes on 1631 campaign. Updated finance records show he donated $1 million. Previously the Public Disclosure Commission records had shown that Bill Gates had given $500,000 and his wife Melinda Gates had donated $500,000in support of the initiative. The measure has raised a total of $11 million.
I-1631 would charge large polluters an escalating fee on fossil-fuel emissions starting at $15 per metric ton. It would be the first direct carbon fee of its kind in the U.S.
Opponents including top oil companies have raised nearly $22 million to defeat it. They say it would hike gas and electricity
