Source: Hal Bernton, Seattle Times, June 25, 2019.
PORTLAND — Washington state lawmakers are very familiar with the type of cap-and-trade bill to combat climate change that in Oregon led eleven Republican state senators to walk out and leave the state in a dramatic effort to block a vote.
During the past decade, two Washington Democratic governors — Christine Gregoire and Jay Inslee — pushed unsuccessfully to pass similar legislation that would create a tightening cap on carbon emissions and then auction off pollution permits. And a veteran state Democratic senator from Seattle who introduced a cap-and-trade bill during the last session is poised to resubmit a proposal in 2020 when the Legislature reconvenes in Olympia.
“We are in the battle now, and it will take time,” state Sen. Reuven Carlyle said. “But I am absolutely committed to the bill.”