Leadership in the House: Our current legislature is blessed with many new members with bold visions and a desire for action. This year Representative Davina Duerr (D-Bothell) stepped up to lead the fight for addressing climate change in the GMA. Representative Duerr introduce House Bill 2427 which added a climate goal to the 14 existing goals in the GMA. She also introduced a more ambitious bill, House Bill 2609, that would have implemented both a climate goal as well as a climate element. The element would give greater direction on how cities and counties should address climate change in their comprehensive plans. There are currently nine mandatory elements. It became clear early on that we didn’t have the votes to pass the more ambitious HB 2609 this year, but we might be able to pass HB 2427 this year to add the climate goal and build momentum for the full climate element in the 2021 session.
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