Washington leads the fight for a cleaner climate future 🌎🌱

There is no doubt about it – our climate is changing rapidly. Summer is a time of extremes from flooding to wildfires to soaring temperatures. That’s why I’m proud that Washington state has emerged over the past decade as a leader in fighting for a cleaner, healthier climate for our kids.

Despite the budget deficit, the Legislature ensured that Climate Commitment Act dollars are spent on their intended purposes in the state budgets. That means maintained funding for programs to study and help reduce asthma in high pollution areas, clean building efforts for energy modernization at the University of Washington, ocean acidification monitoring, a new battery manufacturing lab at UW, and new EV fast charging stations along Highway 99 and the Ballard Market.

The Transportation Budget expanded transit in our region including $8.2 million to pay for the dedicated lanes, bus stops, signal optimization, and other improvements for the Harris & Mercer Transit Access Project. We also passed $6.2 million providing funding for pedestrian access, protected bike lanes on Eastlake, bus stop improvements, and more along the RapidRide J Line. And we approved $9 million for projects like the Fremont Transit Corridor, Route 40 to downtown design and construction, and Route 43 & 44 Ballard to University District design and construction.