More than $50 million in revenue from Washington state's carbon market auctions is going to 32 tribal nations across the Northwest for clean-energy projects and efforts to better safeguard communities from the effects of climate change.
The effects on Indigenous communities are varied, from the rising tide gnawing at communities on the Pacific Ocean to shorelines thick with dead fish due to low water levels or oxygen to wildfires racing through the ponderosa pines.
The money can apply to a range of projects, including home weatherization, salmon habitat restoration and solar energy, to meet needs across geographies, cultures and economies. The grant program is funded through the Climate Commitment Act, the state's landmark climate law that requires the state's biggest polluting businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or purchase allowances at quarterly auctions to cover them.
In November, voters will decide the fate of the program, and supporters are hoping to show its importance in efforts like this. Critics of the program have portrayed it as a cash grab by the state and argue that it has led to higher prices for utilities, fuel and other consumer goods.
The carbon market has raised more than $2.1 billion so far.
If a repeal effort succeeds, grant programs available to local governments, tribes and communities like these will be lost. Revenue loss from the repeal is estimated at $1.42 billion in the first budget biennium ending in 2025, $1.77 billion in the following biennium and $1.4 billion in the biennium ending in 2029, according to the state Office of Financial Management.
Gov. Jay Inslee and state Commerce Director Mike Fong traveled to make the announcement Tuesday in Taholah, where the Quinault River meets the Pacific Ocean, and where the Quinault Indian Nation has spent at least a decade working to move hundreds of residents and civic buildings to higher ground.
Quinault received $13 million for five projects to help move the two main villages of Taholah and Queets out of the Olympic Coast's flooding and tsunami zone. The money will help build a new child- and elder-services building, an emergency shelter, and a new water tank and pump house to serve housing, government buildings and a relocated public school.
The money will also help develop a master plan and architectural drawings for a new museum and cultural center.
"We are incredibly grateful for this funding allowing us to take a big step forward in our mission to get our people, our homes and our critical infrastructure out of harm's way," Quinault Indian Nation President Guy Capoeman said in a statement. "Funding for a new 'Generations Building' is truly a blessing. It will allow us to serve our elders and children, our most precious resource, in a safe space while providing an emergency shelter and operations base when we need to respond to inevitable flooding and other natural disasters that are part of life on the coast."
The grants will support relocation to higher ground for coastal tribes such as Quinault and Shoalwater Bay; they'll help tribes including Samish, Spokane, Makah, Tulalip and Swinomish build solar energy, battery storage and other energy security efforts; and support vehicle electrification and charging infrastructure for Hoh, Sauk-Suiattle, Muckleshoot and others.
Commerce collaborated with tribes to design the plan to distribute the $52 million from the Climate Commitment Act earmarked for these projects by the Legislature. Thirty-three tribes were eligible for $750,000 in formula grants, 10 tribes won competitive grants and two tribes received direct appropriations from the Legislature.
The Skokomish Tribe, with lands in forested areas along Hood Canal, a fjord separating the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, will receive about $2.8 million from the program.
Some Skokomish Nation homes were constructed with lower-quality materials and poor craftsmanship, said Tom Strong, Skokomish vice chairman. Meanwhile, a lack of financial assistance from the federal government has led many to fall into disrepair.
The new money will help Skokomish weatherize homes for people 65 years and older. That might include providing new insulation, roofs, windows and doors.
Strong sees many other issues he would like to see addressed within the community, including maintaining septic systems near the most flooded river in Washington, but this grant allows the tribe to begin to address some basic needs.
"It'd be nice to give everybody a heat pump," Strong said of the climate funding from the state. "But if I've got people with collapsed roofs, it's really hard for me to justify giving someone a heat pump when somebody's house may be uninhabitable come the fall."
Swinomish, a tribal community about 65 miles north of Seattle on Fidalgo Island, is building solar energy on three civic buildings and nine other structures, including apartments and cottages, as part of a broader climate action plan.
More than $2 million in this round of funding will go to both solar energy on the police and social services building and to future climate hazard and renewable energy planning. Another $750,000 will support climate workforce development and other initiatives to address climate change.
"Swinomish is grateful for these Commerce Department climate grants that will support the tribe's energy independence and increase its resiliency in the face of power disruptions," Swinomish Chairman Steve Edwards said in a statement. "Swinomish is a long-time leader in advancing climate-friendly actions, and these grants will enhance the tribal community's ongoing adaptation efforts."
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