(The Center Square) – A lawsuit was filed in Thurston County Superior Court on Thursday by a pair of state lawmakers and a public policy organization against two state agencies for what the plaintiffs say is the agencies’ failure to comply with a state law requiring timely reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.
Represented by the Citizen Action Defense Fund, state Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco; state Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy; the Washington Policy Center and WPC Vice President for Research Todd Myers filed the lawsuit against the Department of Commerce and the Department of Ecology.
This is the second such lawsuit. An earlier lawsuit by Myers was dismissed earlier this year by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Lanese, who ruled Myers didn’t have standing in the case.
The judge reasoned that the applicable statute identifies the beneficiaries of reporting requirements as the Governor’s Office and appropriate legislative committees. He noted that there are other interested parties – such as Myers – but that doesn’t mean Myers is within the “zone of interest” to have standing to compel the state to provide the requested information.
Lanese also noted that this session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5036, which mandates that Ecology and Commerce report annual emissions data to the governor and Legislature, starting in 2026. SB 5036 went into effect on July 27.
The new lawsuit also seeks to force the two agencies to comply with RCW 70A.45.020, which requires agency staff to report statewide greenhouse gas emissions for the preceding two years at the end of an even-numbered year. The law requiring timely disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions was adopted in 2008.
Paige McElwrath, CADF director of communications and operations, explained the reasoning behind the second lawsuit.
“What’s unfortunate is that the court ignored the case law that said you can file suit if you are only beneficially interested, which Todd Myers is – he needs those reports in order to do his job as the vice president for research at the Washington Policy Center,” she said in an email. “However, because the court said we needed lawmakers in order to sue, we’ve added two this time around (along with the Washington Policy Center) – Sen. Torres and Rep. Dye have joined us.”
Myers reasons that the release of greenhouse gas figures, as required by law, is essential to determining if taxpayers are getting a return on their investment in terms of the state’s climate policies.
“Without accurate, timely emissions numbers, it’s impossible to know if the state’s climate policies are effective,” Myers said in a CADF news release announcing the lawsuit. “Accountability requires transparency. If agencies can ignore reporting requirements, then taxpayers cannot trust the billions in energy taxes are being used effectively to help the planet.”
The Center Square reached out to CADF for comment on the lawsuit.
“It’s frustrating that CADF has had to file not one, but two lawsuits to try to hold state agencies accountable,” CADF Executive Director Jackson Maynard said in an emailed statement. “This data has been available for 17 months, and it outlines the efficacy of the environmental programs that the state charges taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to fund. More importantly, they are legally required to release this data. Our hope is that this suit will get the state to follow the law and provide the legally required information to the public.”
The Center Square contact the Department of Ecology for comment, but didn’t get an immediate response.
