2021 Environmental Priorities
Clean Fuel Standard
The transportation sector is responsible for nearly half of our climate and air pollution in Washington. We need our transportation to be clean, affordable, and accessible. A Clean Fuel Standard will require fuel producers and importers to reduce pollution from the fuels that power our transportation system. It is a tested and effective policy that would clean our air, give us more options to fuel our vehicles (such as electricity and local renewable biofuels), create economic development, cut climate pollution, and move us beyond oil.
Clean & Just Transportation
Transportation is the state’s largest source of climate pollution, and we have a lot of needs in communities across the state to make sure people can move around easily. Clean and Just Transportation priority seeks to create a holistic transportation system with unconstrained revenue and investments that focuses on accessibility for all users, prioritizes equity, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts.
Conservation Works
As a result of the pandemic, our state faces a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall with an upside down tax system unable to provide reliable funding. In times of crisis, we have a responsibility to rethink and rebuild our state budget to be more fair and equitable. The Conservation Works priority seeks to protect essential environmental programs from budget cuts and promote investments in responsible projects that tackle climate change, create good jobs, support salmon and orca recovery, and help communities chart their own course for a better future.
contact: Clean Fuel Standard
Leah Missik, Climate Solutions
leah.missik@climatesolutions.org
contact: Clean & Just Transportation
Bryce Yadon, Transportation Choices Coalition
bryce@by-consulting.com
contact: Conservation Works
Darcy Nonemacher, WEC & WCV
darcy@wecprotects.org
Partnership Agenda
Voting Justice
The health of our democracy depends on allowing communities to elect leaders of their choice to represent their needs today and in the future. Issues like climate change, clean water, and conservation are important to many voters and people in the state, so improving access to voting is essential to finding smart solutions to these pressing problems. Two essential bills are before the legislature and should pass:
HEAL Act
Where you live, your income, race or language ability should not determine how healthy and safe you are. But individual health and well-being indicators can vary significantly according to who we are and where we live. The HEAL Act is a recommendation from the Environmental Justice Task Force, and adds an essential racial equity lens to the environmental program work done by the state. Everything from culturally appropriate public engagement to how implementation and enforcement of environmental protections is conducted to funding prioritization will be strengthened to better serve the public.
The Working Families Tax Credit/Recovery Rebate Campaign
This is a statewide effort to enact and fund an updated Working Families Tax Credit/Recovery Rebate in the 2021 session. This campaign is driven by a diverse coalition of over 30 organizations representing labor groups, grassroots organizers, healthcare workers and caregivers, food and economic justice advocates, survivors of domestic violence, and communities of color. The Working Families Tax Credit coalition is deeply committed to economic justice and making sure that our state prioritizes flexible, direct cash assistance to low- and moderate-income earners who are most affected by our state’s upside down tax code and who are also most affected by the current public health and economic crisis.
Worker Protection Act
A critical way to hold corporations accountable is to protect whistleblowers and provide workers with different tools to push back against discrimination, wage theft, or dangerous working conditions. Unfortunately, worker protections have been weakened at the federal level, putting workers at risk. This bill helps to fill gaps from the federal rollbacks by allowing qui tam enforcement of worker protection laws, which means people harmed or concerned about violations can bring the corporation to court for an independent review and decisions on how to make things right.
Become a Legislative Session Activist
Take action for a healthier environment for all Washingtonians. From attending hearings, organizing in your community, attending town halls, to writing letters to the editor, we can help find the right role for you.
Bills to watch
Want to stay up to date on policy in progress? WEC helps develop the Environmental Community Hot List for the State House and Senate—the 10 most important environmental bills being debated that week.
Bill Tracker
Announcing EPC‘s 2021 Bill Tracker! This bill tracker serves as a tool for anyone to use to make sense of environmental work happening this session.
Environmental Priorities Coalition Members
Past Reports
Past Priorities Report
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Past Priorities Report Executive Summary
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