Sen. Joe Nguyễn (D-White Center), chair of the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, and Sen. Marko Liias (D-Everett), Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, today affirmed the Legislature’s commitment to combatting climate change and moving toward a clean energy future.
The legislators noted how investments made possible by the Climate Commitment Act are already supporting alternative fuels and electric vehicles, helping farmers and low-income households with energy efficiency upgrades like heat pumps and solar panels, protecting forestlands and watersheds, transit options and bike/pedestrian safety improvements, attracting major investments to Washington state like the new hydrogen hub — which is expected to create and support more than 10,000 good-paying jobs — and much more.
“The investments funded by the Climate Commitment Act are already providing major benefits to the people of Washington,” Nguyễn said. “Washington is leading the way to a cleaner, greener future, and we can’t stop our climate progress. We need to defeat climate change and rein in the pollution that the oil and gas industry is causing across our state and nation —the Climate Commitment Act is how we make that happen.”
“Our Move Ahead Washington package is a comprehensive, 15-year vision for our state to reduce traffic congestion, expand transit and mobility options, and fix potholes and preserve aging bridges. The Climate Commitment Act is the foundation of these investments, without it all of these critical investments are at risk,” Liias said. “Right as our economy is beginning to recover from the pandemic, we shouldn’t jeopardize this progress. Washington families can’t afford to spend more time stuck in traffic or blocked by a failing bridge, and our kids can’t keep breathing polluted air.”
Nguyễn, working with other Democratic leaders, intends to introduce legislation in the 2024 legislative session to increase transparency for gas prices and oil company profits and hold oil companies accountable for the damage to Washingtonians’ air, water, and health caused by fossil fuel pollution.
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