Reducing carbon emissions is the fundamental goal of the state’s vanguard environmental policy known as the Climate Commitment Act. But measuring its success relies upon federal data that’s been taking years to compile and disclose. Results from 2021 were released earlier this month, an unacceptable lag that blinds Washingtonians from accurately assessing whether this consequential state policy is actually working.
That should change. Lawmakers should introduce multiple efforts to measure whether the act is driving results to fight, and adapt to, a warming and more chaotic climate. …
… [A] second prudent accountability measure would be for Gov. Bob Ferguson and lawmakers to enlist a third party of some kind — be it the state auditor’s office or another watchdog — that can scrub the spending and publish whether the funds are leading to less pollution. …
Washington must fulfill its mission to tweak and reform such a monumental policy. ….
In the absence of federal climate leadership, it will be up to Washington to provide a guide. But lawmakers here must lock in the accountability and transparency necessary to demonstrate to policymakers elsewhere that Washington’s is a system worth emulating.
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