Home » Government » Behold Washington’s ‘new beginning’ in its fight against climate change
As the dust settles in Olympia, the state finally has embraced cap and trade, electric cars and environmental justice.
Lawmakers in Olympia have bound Washington state’s fortunes — literally — to the fight against climate change with a legislative blitz, enacting a “historic” suite of climate protections.
Before adjourning April 25, Democrats passed a pair of sweeping restrictions on greenhouse gas pollution intended to aggressively cut Washington’s carbon footprint while driving billions of dollars into state coffers and toward clean energy.
The Climate Commitment Act will require industrial polluters to buy pollution credits from the state in a cap-and-trade market system similar to one operating in California. The bill stipulates that tens of millions of dollars collected each year should be used to underwrite cleanup in the most-polluted areas of the state, clearing the air and restoring the land in communities where Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans suffer disproportionately.