Environment Washington’s 2008 legislative agenda

In the coming year, Environment Washington is hoping to get a lot accomplished in the Washington Legislature. Coming off some big successes in 2007, with the passage of strong global warming legislation and the launch of the governor’s Climate Advisory Team, we are setting the bar high.

Global warming
At the top of our list for the 2008 session will be continuing to find real solutions to global warming in Washington.

The governor’s Climate Advisory Team will make its recommendations for reducing our state’s emissions at the start of the session, and we will be prioritizing three main bills that go a long way to fighting global warming in Washington.

The Climate Action bill would slash our carbon pollution from the main culprits—energy production, transportation, building operations and other sources in the state. The bill also gives the state the authority to enforce these new limits.

The Local Solution to Global Warming bill adds to the state’s Growth Management Act. The bill would reduce pollution from transportation, the biggest source of global warming pollution in Washington, by ensuring we build more walkable, transit-oriented communities.

This measure would also have the added benefit of preventing urban sprawl from gobbling up Washington’s open space.

A cleaner Washington
Puget Sound is facing a growing threat from pollution. There are some critical ways in which we can address pollution in the coming year.

Evergreen Cities is a measure to keep the trees in our urban areas, and restore forests near and in cities. Urban trees help clean the air, as well as reduce the pollution runoff that is affecting the Puget Sound and other waterways.

Besides working to protect surrounding lands, we are working to protect Puget Sound more directly. Environment Washington will be working with the new cabinet-level Puget Sound Partnership throughout 2008 to help strengthen the plan to clean up the Sound by 2020. The Partnership’s plan must be presented to the governor by September 2008, and much of it will be implemented by the Legislature in the 2009 session.

In the meantime, we will be working with the Legislature to beef up enforcement of existing laws to protect Puget Sound through better permitting processes and a citizen suit provision that allows local communities to play a stronger role in helping protect the Sound.