Friends,
If you have reached out to my office in the past few weeks, thank you. I truly appreciate hearing from you and learning more about your priorities.
I’ve heard a lot of concern over housing affordability and climate change. In fact, if you watched my Facebook video, I accidentally mentioned housing affordability when I was talking about college affordability. I was thinking about both issues because both are important to our communities and our state. In Olympia, we are working to address housing affordability and climate change.
Official Facebook Page
Before I update you on our efforts to address housing affordability and climate change, I want to make sure you have an opportunity to “like” my new official Facebook page. I regularly post content about my efforts here in Olympia. I also take the time to answer your questions. You can find me at facebook.com/RepDavePaul.
Affordable Homes and Stable Communities for All
Washington is facing an affordable housing and homelessness crisis—every district, every county, every community is experiencing this crisis. Despite recent efforts, we simply do not have adequate housing to keep Washingtonians of all income levels housed.
House Democrats have laid out a blueprint for improving housing affordability and reducing homelessness:
Build More—We need affordable housing in ALL parts of the state. A LOT more. One of the ways we can build more is by making additional investments in programs we know work well, like the Housing Trust Fund, sales tax credits, and public works loans.
Build Up—We need more density around transit centers. Affordable housing and public transit go hand-in-hand.
Build Better—There’s too much red tape that gets in the way of addressing community needs quickly and efficiently. Lawmakers can do more to streamline environmental permitting, make better use of available public land, and expedite lending procedures.
Build Stability—Our communities are unstable because our broken eviction system imposes life-shattering consequences in a very short amount of time. We are proposing bold reforms aimed at truly and justly balancing the relationship between tenants and landlords. We also seek to better support students and children experiencing homelessness, and provide targeted property tax reductions for seniors and veterans.
Climate bills are moving through the House
The science is clear: climate change poses significant risks to our economy, our health, and our quality of life. The most recent National Climate Assessment, a federal report prepared by hundreds of scientists, details the disruptive impacts anticipated in the United States and the Pacific Northwest if we don’t take action now to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Several bills that would help move our state toward a cleaner future are making their way through the House. Here’s where they currently stand:
Clean Fuel Standard (HB 1110): Addresses our state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions – the transportation sector. Transportation represents 45 percent of our emissions. A clean fuel standard would improve local air quality and provide economic benefits to Washington communities by increasing the demand for biofuels produced here. The bill advanced out of the Environment & Energy committee on January 28 and will be heard by the Transportation committee.
Phasing out super pollutants (HB 1112): Hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are primarily used in commercial and industrial refrigerants. They are known as “super pollutants” because they can be thousands of times more damaging to our climate than carbon dioxide. This bill phases out HFCs in our state and transitions to alternatives. It was voted out of the Environment & Energy committee on January 24 and is now in the Appropriations committee.
Abiding by the Paris Climate Agreement (HB 1113): The Paris climate agreement was an unprecedented collaboration between almost every nation in the world to address the global threat of climate change. In 2017, the Trump Administration withdrew the United States from the agreement. This bill simply aligns Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions limits with those established by the US’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. It had public hearings on January 15 and 17, and passed out of the Environment & Energy committee on January 31 and is now making its way through the Appropriations committee.
100% Clean Electricity (HB 1211): This bill will help transition our state to a clean energy future by removing carbon emissions from the generation of electricity. It requires utilities to gradually transition away from fossil fuel-generated electricity, setting a preliminary “coal elimination” deadline of 2025, and a final “clean grid” deadline of 2045. The bill passed the Environment & Energy committee on February 5 and will now have a public hearing in the Finance committee.
Increasing Energy Efficiency (HB 1257): The fastest-growing source of emissions in Washington is emissions from buildings. By retrofitting old buildings and updating standards for new ones, we can cut carbon emissions quickly and economically, while creating good-paying jobs. A bill to help move us towards this goal will likely pass out of the Environment & Energy committee this week.
Again, thank you for reaching out to me. I love hearing from you and getting your feedback. Please keep the comments coming. You can always contact me, or my Legislative Assistant Sara Develle, at Dave.Paul@leg.wa.gov or 360-786-7914.
Sincerely,
Rep. Dave Paul