Legislative Session 2024
Overview
The Legislature is working on many bills at once during a short session, as well as amending the budget. Here are a few major threads we are following:
Climate Committment Act (CCA) Changes. There are various different proposal to change the CCA, and the one with the most traction at the moment is to link Washington's carbon allowance market under the CCA to California and Quebec. In theory, this will reduce the cost of the allowances while still allowing us to meet our steadily decreasing carbon cap. The Legislature also has the option to respond to I-2117, a Republican led initiative that has qualified for the Nov. ballot which would repeal the CCA altogether.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) Decarbonization (HB 1589). This would set up a plan, a schedule and a funding for transitioning off PSE's methane gas network to electricity.
Allowances from the Climate Committment Act have brought in more revenue than was anticipated, and the Legislature is now in the position of deciding what to do with the additional funds.
One good way to follow along on climate bills during the Session, and also to give your input and help the bills get passed is to join 350 Washington's Civic Action Team, which sends out bi-weekly action alerts during the session.
Another great resource for information is Climate At the Leg. Many of the bills in the table are based on information from Climate At the Leg, and many of them have links back to easily read summaries of the bills.
