‘Science guy’ backs carbon market

OLYMPIA — Famed science educator Bill Nye will grace Washingtonians’ screens this fall in an ad for the group working to protect the state’s carbon market as it faces a survival test in the Nov. 5 election.

Nye stars in a new ad released Friday by the No on 2117 campaign, the deep-pocketed effort to keep the state’s system in place.

On the other side, Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood is backing the effort to ax the program, Initiative 2117. He’s also behind a slate of other initiatives on the ballot this fall that seek to repeal policies passed by the majority-Democratic Legislature.

The current cap-and-trade system sets a statewide limit on carbon emissions and requires large emitters to buy permits to pollute. The money raised by auctions is directed toward environmental projects.

Heywood and his campaign to repeal the carbon market have been emphasizing the impact of the cap-and-trade program on gas prices.

Nye kicks off the ad with a quick science lesson.

Clad in a lab coat and pink bow tie, he holds up a sign that says “The cat sat on the mat.”

“Reading this is easy, right?” he says. “Your brain is actually doing something called orthographic processing, recognizing letters and words. It’s science.”

Then he pivots to the initiative, echoing the No campaign’s effort to cast the repeal as misleading and harmful to the environment and health.

“But take a look at Initiative 2117,” he says, as the text of the initiative pops up on the screen. “It’s written to confuse you. The mega-millionaires behind it don’t want you to know it will mean more air pollution, threaten clean water and put our health at risk.”

“You don’t have to be a science guy to know that 2117 is a bad deal for Washington,” he concludes while holding a model brain.

The ad is backed by “a six-figure” buy, according to the campaign, and will run in the Seattle market on broadcast and cable stations and digital channels.

In a statement Friday, a spokesperson for the group supporting the initiatives, Let’s Go Washington, Hallie Balch, called Nye “an out-of-state D-list actor” who “got paid by out-of-state billionaires to make an ad about how an initiative created to lower costs and hold the government accountable is a bad idea.”

“Where’s the story?” Balch said.

A spokesperson for No on 2117, Mark Prentice, said Nye was not paid for his time.

Nye has roots in the Seattle area: He worked as an engineer for Boeing and as a comedy writer and performer on “Almost Live!”, the local sketch comedy show.

He hosted “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” the children’s television program, throughout most of the 1990s.

Nye has been vocal on science issues, including climate change and evolution. He is co-chairing Climate Power’s “Too Hot Not to Vote” campaign urging voters, particularly women under 40, in swing states to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. In 2019, Nye was briefly featured in a campaign video when Gov. Jay Inslee announced his bid for president.

Claire Withycombe: 206-464-2578 or cwithycombe@seattletimes.com; Claire Withycombe is a Seattle Times staff reporter covering state government.