March 8, 2018
HB 2402 did not receive a vote in the House before we adjourned for the year. I’m glad to see significant climate legislation made it through the committee process in both the House and Senate this year. We’re making progress! Unfortunately, we’ll need to wait until the 2019 before we can try again. There is a path to victory here. We must be relentless.
February 9, 2018
HB 2402 was pulled to the floor calendar. This means it could receive a vote of the full House of Representatives as early as Monday. It will need to be approved by the full House by Wednesday to be considered further.
February 2, 2018
HB 2402 was voted out of the House Technology & Economic Development Committee. It will now go to the House Appropriations committee for a public hearing.
You can watch the hearing live on TVW on Monday, February 5 at 1:30 p.m.
January 23, 2018
HB received a public hearing in the House Technology & Economic Development committee today.
January 5, 2018
As a policymaker, I prefer to be aspirational. It is easy to devote energy to contentious floor fights and late nights at the office when the rewards include better ways of doing things and a future we can be proud to build for our children.
But at times we must be reactive, and the alternative to inaction can be much worse than simply maintaining the status quo. That is the case with climate change, an issue upon which we must act now to create positive outcomes, or we will suffer disastrous ones.
Our choices are clear skies, green spaces and clean water, or rising seas, disappearing animal populations and more uninhabitable land. Those are the stakes.
This session I am happy to be the prime sponsor for House Bill 2402, which seeks to build upon the great climate victory Washington’s voters won in 2006 when they approved the Energy Independence Act. If passed, this bill will require small utilities to pursue all effective, reliable, and feasible methods of conservation.
It will establish new ambitious renewable resource targets, and it will require utilities and market customers to not use electricity derived from coal, diesel, oil, nuclear, waste incineration or certain hydroelectric methods.
Washington has been a leader in taking the necessary steps to build a sustainable society. Now we must continue that momentum and keep fighting on behalf of our streams, our forests, and our kids.