Our Director of Advocacy and Engagement, David Mendoza, testified today in front of the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee during a public hearing on Senate Bill 5126, the Climate Commitment Act. Introduced by Senator Carlyle on request of Governor Inslee, SB 5126 is one of several evolving carbon-pricing proposals being considered by the Legislature. David’s comments to the committee are below and are part of the public record. You can share your thoughts on the bill directly with your legislators using this link.
The Nature Conservancy in Washington is committed to seeing Washington state implement a range of policy mechanisms for addressing the climate crisis: through both rapidly reducing emissions and investing in the resilience of our natural resources and the communities that depend upon them. We appreciate the work of the Governor, Senators Carlyle, Das, Nguyen, Saldaña and others moving us toward this goal.
Whether through a fee, a tax, a standalone cap or a cap-and-trade mechanism, it is crucial that Washington meets our statewide emissions reductions targets. We share the concerns of some of the communities most burdened by pollution about the problems of cap-and-trade programs in other states. As implemented elsewhere, this type of program has typically not met reduction goals and has even allowed pollution in overburdened communities to increase. As such, any carbon pricing policy in Washington must ensure reductions overall and especially in these communities. We urge lawmakers to meet with the communities most impacted by pollution in order to understand the problems they are facing and develop solutions with these communities.
We are recommending that the bill be amended in the following ways:
As the goal of a carbon price is to reduce emissions, we must be sure any pricing policy unquestionably provides that incentive to reduce emissions. In its current form, the allowances in this policy are too high and can be banked for too long to consistently provide that incentive.
Nature is a climate solution. Our forests, waterways, agricultural lands and other ecosystems play a big role in protecting communities from the impacts of a changing climate and in in sequestering carbon. We must use revenues from carbon pricing to reduce carbon in transportation and other sectors of our economy. And we need to invest in the resilience of our natural resources if we want to grow and sustain the resilience of the people and communities that depend on them. We ask that a specific and significant share of revenues be dedicated to resilience, flooding and wildfire prevention, and that local communities and Tribes are able to self-direct the investments in their communities.
We would like to see fewer offsets overall in this bill, and a provision keeping offsets within Washington state.
This bill should more significantly address pollutants other than carbon that are hazardous to human health, known as co-pollutants. We suggest that fuel producers or distributors whose facilities are located in overburdened communities be required to invest in offsets focused on reducing or mitigating these emissions directly in their local community, so that the same people whose health has been at risk because of this pollution will see improvement in their quality of life.
We support the request from Tribal nations and tribal organizations for funding for relocation that has become unfortunately necessary due to climate change. Their sovereign right to co-manage the investment of public funds such as would be made available through a cap-and-invest program should be recognized in the bill.
Thank you.
Banner photo by Hannah Letinich.
