Washington's short legislative session began Monday, and it's looking to be a busy couple of months, with efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions remaining center stage alongside plans to improve recycling rates, protect aquatic and pollinator habitats and even declare a state clam.
Lawmakers will consider whether to amend the state's landmark climate policy, the Climate Commitment Act, and dictate how to best spend the state's fast-growing carbon auction revenue.
At the same time, they must contend with a push to repeal the climate law, Initiative 2117, complicating their efforts, said House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle.
Opponents of the Climate Commitment Act, which puts a cap on statewide emissions and requires the state's biggest polluters to buy allowances in quarterly carbon markets, blame the policy for high gasoline prices.
The policy aims to cut statewide fossil fuel emissions to near-zero by 2050 and invest money from the auctions back into tribes, local governments, communities and people reducing their reliance on fossil fuels. It also complements laws aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in electricity generation, buildings and transportation.
The session ends March 7.
Lawmakers will also consider bills meant to examine oil companies' profit margins, help the state's largest methane gas company transition to clean energy and earmark carbon auction money for lower-emission school buses.
Also on the table are transparency efforts, highlighting the cost of new climate laws for consumers still relying on fossil fuels to heat their homes and run their vehicles.
The lawmakers will also try again to pass a measure to improve recycling and protect overburdened communities from further pollution.
Here is a look at some of the climate and environmental measures proposed for Washington's 2024 legislative session:
Environmental justice
Communities across the state, including South Seattle, have long borne the burden of hosting some of the city's biggest polluting industries. Much of that was shaped by redlining, racial covenants and other discriminatory mortgage and land-use processes used to restrict where people could buy or rent property based on income, ethnicity and race.
House Bill 2070 would require agencies conducting environmental review of projects to include an environmental justice analysis that looks at cumulative impacts of pollution in a community, said the bill's prime sponsor, Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma.
Nearly all of the roughly 12,000 school buses serving Washington's students run on diesel, a known carcinogen, said Leah Missik, senior policy manager for the nonprofit Climate Solutions, during an Environmental Priorities Coalition briefing. House Bill 1368 would require all new school buses to be zero-emission by the school year 2027 and use some carbon auction revenue to pay for it.
Senate Bill 5921 would for the first time require tribal representation on the state conservation commission, requiring one person on the commission to be a member or representative from a federally recognized tribe. The commission is the coordinating agency for all 45 local conservation districts that work on conserving farmland and restoring aquatic habitats across the state.
Transportation
Two bills related to electric vehicle safety would provide $150,000 for the state to study the environmental and health impacts of electric vehicle fires and create grants to accommodate upgrades for the towing and storage of electric vehicles.
House Bill 1904 seeks to appropriate revenue from carbon auctions for the purchase of hybrid electric ferries. Washington State Ferries, according to the bill, has been reported as the state agency with the highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Senate Bill 5910 would create a state Department of Natural Resources Smokey Bear license plate to promote wildfire prevention. The plate would cost $40 up front and $30 to renew, with the proceeds going to the DNR's wildfire prevention programs.
Energy
House Bill 2042 would require new energy projects or the expansion of existing energy projects to ensure they have evidence of an "adequate" water supply for the project and its ongoing operations.
House Bill 1924 would direct state officials to recommend whether and when nuclear energy would be an "appropriate" addition to Washington's clean energy policies.
House Bill 2082 would require the state to study the needs for training and retention in the electrical transmission industry to meet the need to expand electrical transmission capacity.
Fish and wildlife
House Bill 1984 would designate the Pacific razor clam, Siliqua patula, as Washington's official clam. The clam is endemic to the Pacific Northwest and millions are harvested every year, the bill says. The species is an important source of food, economic stability and cultural identity.
Broken or undersized culverts can cause flooding and serve as partial or total barriers to the state's threatened and endangered salmon trying to make their way up streams to spawn.
As the state makes progress on its list of culverts it's required to remove, fish may bump into private, county or city barriers elsewhere on the stream. House Bill 2045 would allow local governments to accept donations from people or organizations to sponsor fish barrier removal projects in exchange for public signage acknowledging the contribution.
Senate Bill 5846 would create a statewide beaver ecosystem management plan focused on protecting and monitoring beavers and educating communities about the benefits of beaver habitat.
Senate Bill 5934 would require any projects including landscaping to make at least 25% of the planted area as "pollinator habitat" using native plants.
Recycling
Lawmakers are taking another swing at passing the packaging and paper producer responsibility bill. The WRAP Act, or House Bill 2049, would require companies that create packaging and paper products to pay for recycling.
Meanwhile, House Bill 1900 would set and gradually increase requirements for packaging producers to use more recycled content in things like plastic bottles, grocery bags and household cleaning products. By 2028, the bill would also ban producers from selling materials that make "deceptive or misleading" claims about their recyclability.
Fossil fuels
Sen. Joe Nguyen is planning to introduce a bill that would be similar to California's gas price-gouging law. The goal would be to require oil companies to provide the state with more information about costs and profits at different levels of the supply chain, allowing the state to identify pricing malpractice and better protect customers.
Two bills seek to tell people how much they're paying to continue using fossil fuels under the state's climate legislation. House Bill 2050 would require the Washington Department of Agriculture to create stickers for retail gas pumps outlining the per-gallon cost added by state and federal taxes as well as the increased cost attributed to the Climate Commitment Act. The stickers would have to be updated at least once every three years.
Senate Bill 5877 would require electric utilities to provide customers with an itemized listing on each billing statement for all charges caused by the Climate Commitment Act.
SB 5783 would reduce Washington's early emission reduction targets set by the Climate Commitment Act and offer motorists two annual discounts on car tabs worth $30 each.
