Five landmark pollution fighting bills signed into law by Washington Governor Jay Inslee

“This is a great day for the State of Washington!”

Lis­ten to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee long enough, and you’re bound to hear that line at some point, because the Ever­green State’s chief exec­u­tive — known for his opti­mism and can-do spir­it — nev­er miss­es an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate when Wash­ing­ton takes a step towards more free­dom and pros­per­i­ty for its people.

Today was such a day.

With a few pen strokes, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee signed into law five land­mark bills to com­bat pol­lu­tion and pro­tect our envi­ron­ment in Cas­ca­di­a’s most pop­u­lous state in front of a large crowd of activists, leg­is­la­tors, labor lead­ers, busi­ness exec­u­tives, and envi­ron­men­tal advo­cates. All were made pos­si­ble by the new­ly enlarged Demo­c­ra­t­ic majori­ties vot­ers elect­ed to the Leg­is­la­ture last autumn.

These are the five bills that became laws today:

• SB 5116 — Sup­port­ing Wash­ing­ton’s clean ener­gy econ­o­my and tran­si­tion­ing to a clean, afford­able and reli­able ener­gy future.
• HB 1112 — Reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions from hydrofluorocarbons
• HB 1257 — Con­cern­ing ener­gy efficiency
• HB 1444 — Con­cern­ing appli­ance effi­cien­cy standards
• HB 2042 — Advanc­ing green trans­porta­tion adoption

Watch the bill sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny here on demand.

With these new laws, Wash­ing­ton is say­ing as a state that we care about the Earth, our com­mon home, and we’re going to do our part to pro­tect our planet.

All Wash­ing­to­ni­ans should rejoice that the Leg­is­la­ture was able to come togeth­er around ideas we need that will clean up our air, water, and soil: an elec­tric grid pow­ered exclu­sive­ly by renew­able ener­gy sources, elec­tric vehi­cle adop­tion, more effi­cient build­ings and appli­ances, and the phase­out of hydroflourocarbons.

As Gov­er­nor Inslee said, these bills rep­re­sent what Wash­ing­ton’s val­ues are all about. We’ve dam­aged our cli­mate with our pol­lut­ing ways, but we need not be par­a­lyzed: we can join forces as a peo­ple to live more sus­tain­ably together.

Said Inslee:

“We can have a fight­ing chance at sav­ing the things we cher­ish most — our land, our air, our water and our children’s health. We aren’t done. Our suc­cess this year is just a har­bin­ger of suc­cess­es to come. But we’re ready. We can do this.”

“With the pas­sage of these bills, Wash­ing­ton is prov­ing that where there’s a will to do some­thing about cli­mate change, there are sev­er­al ways,” said Bruce Speight of Envi­ron­ment Wash­ing­ton. “The one hun­dred per­cent clean ener­gy bill, paired with ener­gy effi­cien­cy and clean trans­porta­tion mea­sures, will clean up our air and water. Wash­ing­ton will not only be a health­i­er place to live, but it will also show oth­er states a path­way to a clean ener­gy future.”

The path from a bil­l’s intro­duc­tion to ses­sion law is a long one. With­out the lead­er­ship of state rep­re­sen­ta­tives like Joe Fitzgib­bon and our own Gael Tar­leton, or sen­a­tors like Reuven Car­lyle, we would not have secured these cru­cial leg­isla­tive vic­to­ries. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all who helped bring these laws to fruition!

Last autumn, when vot­ers reject­ed Ini­tia­tive 1631 while elect­ing large Demo­c­ra­t­ic majori­ties, they sent an impor­tant (if implic­it) mes­sage: come up with a bet­ter plan for com­bat­ing pol­lu­tion. And thank­ful­ly, the Leg­is­la­ture respond­ed. After years of inac­tion, the House and Sen­ate vot­ed repeat­ed­ly for change we need, show­ing that the leg­isla­tive process can pro­duce results for the peo­ple with more pro­gres­sive majori­ties in charge. We need more of this in 2020 and beyond.