HB1823 – Shifts the revenue from the Climate Commitment Act (aka the cap & invest program) to funding outdoor recreation, climate adaptation, and natural climate solutions.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Dye (R; 9th District; Southeast Washington) (Co-Sponsors Representatives Ormsby – D; Eslick, Goehner, Schmick, Klicker, Graham, Chambers, and Abbarno – Rs)
Current status – Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
Summary –
The bill would change the carbon emissions reduction account, which receives roughly $365 million a year of specified revenue in advance of any other allocations from the cap & invest program, into the outdoor recreation and climate adaptation account. The air quality and health disparities account is supposed to get at least $20 million/biennium of the remaining revenue. All the rest of it goes into the climate investment account; 75% of that goes to the climate commitment account and 25% goes to the natural climate solutions account. The bill would eliminate the climate commitment account, and direct all of that revenue into the natural climate solutions account.
Funds in the carbon emissions reduction account are currently dedicated to reducing transportation emissions; under the bill, they would be dedicated to enhancing outdoor recreation and to contributing to climate change adaptation by investing in forest health, drought resilience, flood risk mitigation, and Puget Sound recovery and water quality. $125 million each biennium would go to fund wildfire response, forest restoration, and community resilience.
These funds could also be used for grants and loans to small forestland owners for activities that increase sequestration; the forestry riparian easement program, the family forest fish passage program, or to provide grants under a new grant program administered by the community economic revitalization board and investing in “institutions and infrastructure that make timber and farming towns sustainable and vibrant”. They could be used for drought resilience, or for flood risk mitigation investments including programs to reduce flood damage and improve aquatic habitat in the basins most at risk of catastrophic flooding; to fund flood control authorities to improve floodplains and flood protection infrastructure; or to fund sustainable water supply projects to secure the agricultural industry against climate change risks. They could be used for Puget Sound water quality investments, including upgrading required pollution controls; for outdoor recreation enhancement and amenities, grants to support marinas in complying with the environment protecting measures in aquatic lands permits; grants to replace or add buoys at locations that appropriately balance environmental protection and the needs of on-water recreation; grants to improve equitable access to local trails and connectivity of local trails to parks and regional trail networks; and for investments that measure and reduce the impact of urban heat island effects on salmon, conserve energy, and improve equity in human health.
They could also be used for any other purposes specified in the natural climate solutions account. (The bill would also add the investments in reducing transportation emissions that currently have dedicated funding from the carbon reductions account it would eliminate to the list of purposes that could be supported by that account.)