(The Center Square) – A bill that will require the Washington State Department of Ecology to provide annual reports on climate emissions data cleared the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday with a do-pass recommendation, another step closer to becoming law.
Senate Bill 5036 cleared the Senate on a 49-0 vote on March 11.
An amended version of Senate Bill 5036 aims to strengthen Washington’s climate policy leadership and accountability by mandating annual reporting of statewide greenhouse gas emissions data, with specific emission reduction targets for 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050.
“This bill makes a lot of sense to me, and it’s been long needed. We just received the report from the department [Ecology] on climate emissions and the report was up through 2021, but since then we’ve had significant amounts of appropriations through the Climate Commitment Act, and I think that we need to see if the spending is targeted correctly, if it’s effective and if we need to refocus the spending towards other priorities,” Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, said.
She continued: “Having more timely data would be extremely helpful for this group in Appropriations but also capital budget and other places in the legislature that appropriate money for priorities, so I’m really grateful to have this bill.”
Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, chair of the committee, also voiced support just ahead of a final vote.
“We agree having additional information will help us make better decisions around reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state,” she said.
As reported by The Center Square, earlier this year, the Washington Policy Center think tank sued the state Department of Ecology for failing to produce emissions reports as required by law.
“For more than a decade I’ve been tracking the progress of Washington state counties and cities toward their climate targets,” Todd Myers, WPC’s vice president of research, testified during a March 20 public hearing on the bill. “Currently Washington CO2 emissions are significantly higher than is necessary to meet the 2030 goal. Based on current data, Washington will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of three COVID scale reductions cumulatively in just five years.”
