Climate Action This Week: Climate Action This Week:  Targeted Electrification; Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in buildings; Establishing an Independent Prosecutor; Consolidating natural resources under the Lands Commissioner; Financial responsibility requirements related to oil spills; Electronic products repair; Tribal consultation regarding the use of certain funding authorized by the Climate Commitment Act 

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Here are our top 3 actions. We think they will take about 15 minutes or less.

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* 📜 1. Targeted Electrification - HB 1767

This bill allows public utility districts and municipal utilities to fund electrification retrofits, an authority already granted to private utilities.  This will expand clean energy opportunities to all utility customers. 

We are following the lead of Shift Zero on this bill.

Scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on Environment & Energy on Friday, January 14, 10:00 AM. 

✏️ Please sign in here to support HB 1767 before Friday, January 14, 9:00 AM and select “Pro” in the position button.

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* 📜 2. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in buildings - SB 5722

This bill would set smaller commercial and multifamily buildings on a path to better optimize their energy use and reduce pollution.  It will provide owners of these buildings access to technical and financial assistance, with priority to frontline and low-income communities.

We are following the lead of Shift Zero on this bill.

Scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology on Thursday, January 13, 10:30 AM. 

✏️ Please sign in here to support SB 5722 before Thursday, January 13, 9:30 AM and select “Pro” in the position button.

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* 📜 3. Establishing an Independent Prosecutor - SB 1507

Police prosecuting themselves presents an inherent conflict of interest. This bill would establish an independent prosecutor for the police use of deadly force. This bill is crucial to valuing the lives of Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are disproportionately impacted by police violence.

We are following the lead of the Washington Coalition For Police Accountability on this bill.

Scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on Public Safety on Thursday, January 13, 1:30 PM. 

✏️ Please sign in here to support HB 1507 before Thursday, January 13, 12:30 PM and select “Pro” in the position button.

All done? Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and click the orange “DONE” button to submit your actions!
Have 10 more minutes? Here's three more for you!

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* 📜 4. Consolidate Natural Resources Under the Lands Commissioner - SB 5721

We’re opposing this bill. This bill gives the Department of Natural Resources management of all the state's natural resources.  

This bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks,but hasn’t been scheduled yet. We think it’s worth opposing early.

Our position is informed by the work of Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance and Center for Sustainable Economy on this bill. 

✏️ Please click here to comment on this bill and ask your Senator to vote No. When you “verify” your district, you can select which of your elected leaders to communicate to. For this senate bill, select your Senator. 

“Position” - please select “Oppose”. The first sentence of the written comment should be: I oppose SB 5721. 

📑 You can include this talking point or, better yet, write your own: 
  • This bill is a bad idea. The state Department of Natural Resources is already much too accommodating to the interests of the timber industry. This change would put the timber industry in charge of fish management, the one environmental issue that has somewhat restrained the timber industry over the years.

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* 📜 5. Concerning financial responsibility requirements related to oil spills - SB 1691

This bill requires owners of vessels transporting oil to be financially responsible for addressing oil spills. It also adds federally recognized Tribes as an entity that may be compensated, and prohibits stationary facilities from self-insuring.

We are following the lead of Sightline Institute on this bill. 

This bill is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Environment & Energy on Thursday, January 13, 1:30 PM. 

✏️ Please sign in here to support HB 1691 before Thursday, January 13, 12:30 PM and select “Pro” in the position button.

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* 📜 6. Electronic products repair - HB 1810

This bill requires digital electronic product manufacturers, such as Apple and Microsoft, to make repair information, parts and tools available to independent repair businesses and owners. Extending the life of computers, tablets and cellphones will decrease the need for more resources, energy and transportation to manufacture new products - therefore also decreasing greenhouse gas and reducing the pile of difficult to recycle electrical waste. It just makes good sense! 

We are following the lead of Zero Waste Washington on this bill.

Scheduled for a public hearing in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee on Thursday, January 13, 10:00 AM

✏️ Please sign in here to support HB 1810 before Thursday, January 13, 9:00 AM and select “Pro” in the position button. 

All done? Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and click the orange “DONE” button to submit your actions!
For those with more time, we have one more for you!

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* 📜 7. Concerning tribal consultation regarding the use of certain funding authorized by the Climate Commitment Act - HB 1753

At the end of the legislative session last year, the Governor’s unexpected veto of Tribal consent provisions in the Climate Commitment Act was received as significant betrayal of the good-faith negotiations that led to passage of the Act. The consultations that led to HB 1753 have not been well reported and therefore we don’t have all the information yet.

This is a very important bill that we’re tracking, but there is no legislative action for today. Our team will be watching the hearing to learn more about who is supporting the bill, who has concerns, and the nature of those concerns.

👀 If you have the time, please join us to watch the public hearing in the House Environment & Energy on Thursday, January 13, 1:30 PM. This link is also where the recording will be available, most likely 24 hours after the hearing. 

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* Nice work! Thanks for joining us today! How did that go?

-- The 350 WA Civic Action Team

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