HB1789 – Creating a Department of Natural Resources program selling carbon offsets and other ecosystem services based on state lands.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Reeves (D; 30th District; Federal Way) (By request of the Department of Natural Resources.)
Current status – Had a hearing in the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy and Technology March 22nd. Replaced by a striker and passed out of committee March 28th. Had a hearing in Ways and Means March 30th.
Next step would be – Action by the committee.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
Changes in the Senate –
The changes made by the striker are summarized by staff at the end of it.
In the House – Passed
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. Had a hearing there on February 14th. Replaced by a substitute and passed out of committee on February 17th. Referred to the Committee on the Capital Budget, had a hearing there February 20th, and passed out of committee February 22nd. Referred to Rules, replaced by a striker on the floor, amended, and passed by the House March 7th.
Changes in the House –
The substitute would have required projects on agricultural lands to produce no net decrease in agricultural production; have required forest projects to produce no net decrease in decadal sustainable harvest volume or operable forestland acres in the sustainable harvest unit as well as an increase in future sustainable harvest volume; and made some other smaller changes which are summarized by staff at the beginning of it.
The striker made significant changes that are summarized by staff at the end of it, including added a number of limits on projects and requirements for them. The amendment limits the options to afforestation, reforestation, and aquatic projects on public land, as well as removing the striker’s exception from the limits for up to 10,000 acres of projects.
Comments –
SB5688 is a different version of this bill, also requested by DNR. They have the same provisions for DNR’s activities. That bill also requires Ecology to create a program to help agencies and local governments develop carbon offset programs. This bill has a much more expansive findings section, and different definitions of “ecosystems services” and “ecosystem service marketplace” though it’s not clear to me that the differences have any practical significance.
Summary –
The bill would authorize the Department of Natural Resources to enter into contracts for up to 125 years based on providing ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and storage, air and water filtration, climate stabilization, disturbance mitigation, pollination, pest and disease control, waste decomposition and detoxification, and nutrient from land it manages. DNR could sell voluntary or compliance credits directly through established marketplaces, or contract with project developers or brokers to handle that, including paying them for determining projects’ feasibility; negotiating payments with an ecosystem service marketplace; and marketing and selling credits on one.
The Board of Natural Resources would develop rules for these contracts and set minumum payments covering periods of at least three months for them; it might also choose to set an actual price based on current markets. DNR would be required to report to the Board about each signed contract, including its term and projected revenues. (The bill says the Board could delegate its authority to approve “any credit sales that the Board is required by law to approve” to the Commissioner of Public Lands, but what sales those would be isn’t clear to me.)
Revenues from the sale of credits would be distributed to the Forest Development Account, the Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account, counties, and school districts in the same way that revenues from forests and aquatic lands are currently distributed.