Washingtonians overwhelmingly voted to uphold the Climate Commitment Act in 2024, now state legislators must protect it

The NO on I‑2117 cam­paign suc­cess­ful­ly defend­ed the Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act, Wash­ing­ton’s cap and invest sys­tem, in 2024 (Pho­to: Clean & Prosperous)

In 2024, Wash­ing­ton vot­ers resound­ing­ly reject­ed Bri­an Hey­wood’s Ini­tia­tive 2117 by a mar­gin of 24 per­cent­age points and defend­ed the Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act. Vot­ers made clear that they expect Wash­ing­ton State to reduce pol­lu­tion while rein­vest­ing mar­ket-gen­er­at­ed rev­enue into efforts that cre­ate good jobs, clean­er air, and ener­gy afford­abil­i­ty for com­mu­ni­ties across Washington.

That vic­to­ry was buoyed by an unprece­dent­ed coali­tion of more than six hun­dred Trib­al nations, fire­fight­ers, doc­tors and nurs­es, busi­ness­es large and small, labor unions, and non­prof­its. Clean & Pros­per­ous was proud to be part of that his­toric coali­tion ded­i­cat­ed to pro­tect­ing Washington’s land­mark cap-and-invest policy.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, in the short leg­isla­tive ses­sion set to con­clude next Thurs­day, March 13th, law­mak­ers are poised to retreat on cli­mate com­mit­ments made to vot­ers and use cap-and-invest rev­enue to plug holes in Washington’s gen­er­al fund.

In response, more than one hun­dred and forty-five mem­bers of that his­toric NO on 2117 coali­tion — includ­ing Clean & Pros­per­ous and the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute — are call­ing on the Leg­is­la­ture to keep promis­es made to Wash­ing­ton vot­ers. Our mes­sage is clear: Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act rev­enue must be used first and fore­most for its intend­ed pur­pose: reduc­ing pol­lu­tion while grow­ing our econ­o­my and cre­at­ing jobs.

The Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act was designed to dri­ve progress. It sets a firm, declin­ing cap on pol­lu­tion and rein­vests the pro­ceeds into the very solu­tions that con­tin­ue to reduce emis­sions and mod­ern­ize our economy. 

As the pol­lu­tion cap goes down, ulti­mate­ly, so does the rev­enue. That’s how the pol­i­cy works. We have this fund­ing now, but it won’t be here for­ev­er. That makes it even more impor­tant to invest these dol­lars strate­gi­cal­ly now.

The Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act isn’t just a pol­i­cy frame­work on paper. It’s deliv­er­ing real, mea­sur­able results across Washington.

As wild­fire risk increas­es and smoke sea­son grows longer, CCA invest­ments are help­ing com­mu­ni­ties strength­en resilience before dis­as­ter strikes, pro­tect­ing homes, local economies, and pub­lic health in the process.

They’re expand­ing clean trans­porta­tion options so fam­i­lies and busi­ness­es aren’t stuck rid­ing the roller­coast­er of fos­sil fuel prices, while also cut­ting the vehi­cle emis­sions that harm our lungs, wors­en asth­ma, and dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact over­bur­dened communities.

And they’re putting con­struc­tion work­ers on job sites across the state build­ing the clean ener­gy infra­struc­ture that will pow­er Washington’s econ­o­my for decades to come.

The demand for these invest­ments far exceeds the avail­able funding.

Washington’s EV charg­ing grant pro­gram received rough­ly $150 mil­lion in appli­ca­tions for just $19.4 mil­lion in avail­able dollars. 

Pro­grams sup­port­ing clean school bus­es, home elec­tri­fi­ca­tion rebates, zero-emis­sion infra­struc­ture, dairy digesters, and Trib­al elec­tric boats are sim­i­lar­ly over­sub­scribed. Com­mu­ni­ties and busi­ness­es are ready to build, mod­ern­ize, and com­pete, and con­tin­ued invest­ment will help keep that momen­tum going.

Divert­ing Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act dol­lars away from these invest­ments wouldn’t just slow progress, it would leave ready-to-go projects and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty sit­ting on the sidelines.

This isn’t just about cli­mate. It’s about how we grow Washington’s economy.

Wash­ing­ton has become a leader in clean ener­gy inno­va­tion and job cre­ation, and the Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act has accel­er­at­ed that momen­tum. Invest­ments tied to the pro­gram are pro­ject­ed to sup­port tens of thou­sands of jobs and gen­er­ate bil­lions in eco­nom­ic out­put in the years ahead if we con­tin­ue to invest as the law intended.

These are fam­i­ly-wage jobs in con­struc­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, engi­neer­ing, and project devel­op­ment. They’re jobs mod­ern­iz­ing our trans­porta­tion sys­tem, upgrad­ing build­ings, deploy­ing charg­ing infra­struc­ture, and strength­en­ing grid capac­i­ty. And they’re root­ed in com­mu­ni­ties across the state, not con­cen­trat­ed in one region.

At a time when glob­al com­pe­ti­tion in clean ener­gy is inten­si­fy­ing, pulling back now would under­mine Washington’s com­pet­i­tive­ness and cede lead­er­ship to oth­er states and coun­tries that are dou­bling down on inno­va­tion. Busi­ness­es val­ue cer­tain­ty. Work­ers val­ue sta­bil­i­ty. The Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act pro­vides both by set­ting a clear mar­ket sig­nal and cre­at­ing a unique invest­ment environment.

We can­not sac­ri­fice our resilience against fed­er­al cli­mate and clean ener­gy rollbacks.

Law­mak­ers’ move to use CCA fund­ing for gen­er­al fund oblig­a­tions comes as we are see­ing his­toric cli­mate and clean ener­gy roll­backs on the fed­er­al lev­el, includ­ing the repeal of the endan­ger­ment find­ing, which rep­re­sents a whole­sale rejec­tion of science.

In the last sev­er­al months alone, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has sub­si­dized expen­sive, dirty fuels while kneecap­ping clean ener­gy busi­ness­es and the hun­dreds of thou­sands of jobs they can pro­vide. Wash­ing­ton has built one of the strongest cli­mate frame­works in the coun­try. Scal­ing back now would put invest­ment and jobs at risk, and would sac­ri­fice the unpar­al­leled resilien­cy we have to fed­er­al retrenchment.

The CCA shows that we can reduce pol­lu­tion, grow our econ­o­my, and rein­vest in com­mu­ni­ties at the same time. It gives Wash­ing­ton sta­bil­i­ty when fed­er­al pol­i­cy is unpre­dictable and posi­tions us to com­pete in the indus­tries shap­ing the future.

Vot­ers made that clear when they reject­ed Ini­tia­tive 2117 in 2024. The Leg­is­la­ture needs to hon­or their deci­sion by pro­tect­ing Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act invest­ments and keep­ing the promis­es that were made to Washingtonians.