{"id":3091,"date":"2025-05-15T16:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2025-06-03T14:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T21:42:07","slug":"new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"New state laws improve environmental protections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends and Neighbors,<\/p>\n<p>Over the last decade, our state has emerged as a national leader in efforts to reduce carbon pollution and address climate change. Last fall, our state overwhelmingly voted to protect the landmark <a href=\"https:\/\/ecology.wa.gov\/air-climate\/climate-commitment-act\">Climate Commitment Act<\/a>, passed by the Legislature in 2021. This session, the Legislature took further steps reduce plastic pollution by overhauling the state\u2019s recycling system, strengthen carbon reduction efforts, and support clean energy technology.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=5284&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">SB 5284<\/a>, the Recycling Reform Act, will modernize the state\u2019s recycling program by creating a producer responsibility program in which manufacturers and brands come together to reduce unnecessary packaging and paper, fund statewide recycling services, and ensure that materials put in recycling bins will actually be recycled. Read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/seattle\/2025\/04\/01\/washington-state-bill-recycling-reform\">Recycling Reform Act here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=1409&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">HB 1409<\/a> will strengthen the state\u2019s current <a href=\"https:\/\/ecology.wa.gov\/air-climate\/reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions\/clean-fuel-standard\">Clean Fuels program<\/a> with greater pollution reductions and higher reinvestments to support clean transportation<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=5036&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">SB 5036<\/a> will improve the Climate Commitment Act by improving data collection and requiring annual reports on emissions that will include the most recent data available.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=1018&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">HB 1018<\/a> will help attract cutting-edge fusion energy research projects to Washington. This carbon-free power source is still in the experimental stage and the legislation will help position our state as a leader in this promising technology.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=1462&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">HB 1462<\/a> will create a program to help the state transition away from potent greenhouse gases (hydrofluorocarbons) associated with air conditioning and refrigeration.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=5450&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">SB 5450<\/a> will increase transparency regarding sewage spills by creating a public website providing detailed locations and information about spills across the state.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=1514&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\">HB 1514<\/a> will help advance thermal energy development by streamlining state regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. If you missed my newsletters on <a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/01\/2025-session-ends-with-progress-on-public-school-funding\/\">public education<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/08\/legislature-boosts-support-for-affordable-housing\/\">housing<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/state-capital-budget-advances-affordable-housing\/\">community projects<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/transportation-budget-keeps-sr-520-project-on-track-2\/\">transportation<\/a>, they are available on my <a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/\">website<\/a>. Please don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:Jamie.Pedersen@leg.wa.gov\">Jamie.Pedersen@leg.wa.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Best wishes,<\/p>\n<p>Jamie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends and Neighbors, Over the last decade, our state has emerged as a national leader in efforts to reduce carbon pollution and address climate change. Last fall, our state overwhelmingly voted to protect the landmark Climate Commitment Act, passed by the Legislature in 2021. This session, the Legislature took further steps reduce plastic pollution by overhauling the state\u2019s recycling system, strengthen carbon reduction efforts, and support clean energy technology. SB 5284, the Recycling Reform Act, will modernize the state\u2019s recycling program by creating a producer responsibility program in which manufacturers and brands come together to reduce unnecessary packaging and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New state laws improve environmental protections - Sen. Jamie Pedersen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New state laws improve environmental protections - Sen. Jamie Pedersen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Friends and Neighbors, Over the last decade, our state has emerged as a national leader in efforts to reduce carbon pollution and address climate change. Last fall, our state overwhelmingly voted to protect the landmark Climate Commitment Act, passed by the Legislature in 2021. This session, the Legislature took further steps reduce plastic pollution by overhauling the state\u2019s recycling system, strengthen carbon reduction efforts, and support clean energy technology. SB 5284, the Recycling Reform Act, will modernize the state\u2019s recycling program by creating a producer responsibility program in which manufacturers and brands come together to reduce unnecessary packaging and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sen. Jamie Pedersen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-15T23:15:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-03T21:42:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/05\/recycling_Plastic-waste.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"433\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aaronw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"aaronw\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/pedersen\/2025\/05\/15\/new-state-laws-improve-environmental-protections\/\",\"name\":\"New state laws improve environmental protections - Sen. 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