New environmental justice measures might revive cap-and-trade By Alex Brown, Stateline.org
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After years of failed attempts, Washington state lawmakers last month celebrated the narrow passage of a bill that places an economywide cap on carbon emissions and charges polluters for their contributions to climate change.
But their long-awaited win came as national momentum for such policies, known as cap-and-trade, has begun to wane. California’s first-in-the-nation program, created in 2013, has drawn charges of environmental racism from critics who say it allows industries to achieve compliance without reducing pollution in marginalized communities. Late last year, California’s top air regulator fell out of the running to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after dozens of environmental justice groups warned President Joe Biden about what they said was her “bleak track record in addressing environmental racism.”
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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 t
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