EGN NEWS DESK
Three years in the past, Washington state legislators handed a landmark local weather legislation that positioned the Evergreen State among the many nation’s frontrunners in local weather motion. Now that standing is in danger, because of an upcoming poll initiative this November.
The 2021 Climate Commitment Act launched a statewide cap-and-invest program — solely the second within the nation after California’s — requiring companies to buy allowances to emit greenhouse gases. The system is designed to assist Washington obtain its local weather objectives of practically halving economy-wide emissions by 2030 and just about eliminating them by 2050.
Since its official launch in January 2023, Washington’s cap-and-invest program has raised over $2 billion in income — money that’s already began to circulate towards hundreds of unpolluted power, public transit, power effectivity, and local weather adaptation tasks in cities and cities throughout the state.
This Election Day, Washingtonians might put a cease to all that. Voters could have the possibility to weigh in on a poll measure spearheaded by native hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood that goals to repeal the state’s local weather legislation and its signature cap-and-invest program.
Proponents of the measure, I-2117, declare the coverage has imposed burdensome prices on companies and shoppers. Environmental advocates say a repeal would jeopardize a essential supply of funding for tons of of state applications, chilling local weather progress in Washington and past.
“It’s arduous to overstate the influence” of a potential repeal, mentioned Caitlin Krenn, local weather and clear power director for the advocacy group Washington Conservation Action. “We’re speaking billions of {dollars} that may be misplaced” when it comes to funding for clear power and electrification tasks.
How Washington’s formidable local weather legislation got here underneath hearth
Washington’s cap-and-invest legislation arrived after years of makes an attempt to introduce carbon pricing within the state.
The program units an yearly declining cap on statewide carbon emissions and creates a mounted pool of “allowances” based mostly on that restrict. Large companies lined underneath the legislation, together with utilities, refineries, and heavy trade, should bid to buy allowances equal to the quantity of carbon dioxide they emit. As time goes on, the variety of allowances shrinks, elevating carbon costs in an try and prod companies to proactively scale back emissions. Revenue from this system will get funneled to decarbonization efforts.
Close to 75 p.c of the state’s emissions are lined underneath the system.
While many states, Washington included, have handed local weather insurance policies concentrating on particular industries, akin to clear gas requirements, cap-and-invest applications are among the best methods to make sure states can attain broader emissions-reduction targets, in line with Caroline Jones, senior analyst on the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.
These applications “act as a backstop, or insurance coverage coverage, alongside these sector-specific insurance policies,” Jones mentioned. “So if these insurance policies don’t ship the extent of reductions that had been hoped, there’s nonetheless a plan in place to verify emissions are going down.”
In phrases of their scale, the emissions-reduction targets Washington goals to hit with its cap-and-invest program surpass even California’s objectives. Washington’s legislation additionally consists of provisions to determine and scale back dangerous air air pollution in communities most impacted by it. Taken collectively, these options make the coverage a “gold commonplace” amongst state local weather initiatives, mentioned Jones.
That similar ambition has prompted main backlash from native conservatives, who’re hoping to not solely finish the coverage but additionally forestall the state from ever enacting a cap-and-invest program once more.
Heywood, who lives within the Washington metropolis of Redmond, launched the marketing campaign to repeal the state’s local weather legislation final yr. His political motion committee, Let’s Go Washington, spent round $7 million — with greater than $6 million coming from Heywood himself — to fund signature gathering for the initiative, together with a number of others which have efficiently landed on this yr’s poll. Another measure, I-2066, goals to stop restrictions on pure fuel use in buildings, whereas two others goal the state’s capital good points tax and long-term-care insurance coverage program. Let’s Go Washington counts amongst its donors and high supporters the state’s Republican Party.
