Major climate bills face Monday committee deadline
Monday, March 2, is the deadline for bills to get out of fiscal and transportation committees in Olympia. A slew of bills important to fighting the climate catastrophe, as well as clearing cheaters out of transit lanes, are up against this wall.
Both the House and Senate version of the bill to allow automated camera enforcement of some transit-only lanes have passed out of their original chamber. Bizarrely, both are having trouble getting out of the transportation committees in their second chamber. HB 1793 is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Transportation Committee Monday. SB 5789 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee today. Each has to get out of committee Monday.
Of much larger concern to those who want to see humanity survive the impending climate catastrophe, bills to require cars to emit less CO2, fuels to be less polluting, and to set an overall limit on the state's emissions in line with 2018 science, are also having trouble getting to the floor of their second chambers. I covered these bills in a little more detail recently.
HB 1110, mandating a schedule for cleaner transportation fuels, won't be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee until Monday. It then needs to pass a committee vote the same day.
HB 2311, which would set the limit on the state's carbon emissions in line with the recommendations of the Department of Ecology, based on the latest available science as of 2018(!) got out of the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy, & Technology Tuesday, and was just heard in the Senate Ways & Means Committee Friday. It still has to be scheduled for a committee vote Monday, and pass Monday, or the bill dies, again.
SB 5811, imposing California's clean car standards schedule in Washington, has yet to even be scheduled for a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee. It needs to be heard and passed out Monday, or it is dead.
These are not nearly all the climate action bills, but they are the most crucial to taking the largest bite out of the state transportation sector's enormous CO2 emissions.
You can look up your legislators' contact information here.