Washington Voters Defend "Gold Standard" Climate Law, Underscoring that Ambitious Action is Popular

OLYMPIA, Wash. (November 5, 2024) — Washington voters resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative to repeal Washington’s landmark cap-and-invest program, securing the state’s most effective tool to fight climate change. In doing so, they aligned with a coalition of more than 500 organizations, community groups, Tribes and labor unions that came together to show strong and unified support for the Climate Commitment Act’s powerful pollution cap and community investments.

“The people of Washington have endorsed one of the nation’s most ambitious programs to fight climate change — and sent a strong message to other states that voters want policies that curb planet-heating pollution.

“Washington became the nation’s frontrunner on climate action in 2021 with the Climate Commitment Act. The law created a cap-and-invest program that puts a binding limit on pollution across all major sectors of the economy through 2050 — a powerful and essential tool to aggressively tackle climate change — while raising funds for Washington communities.

“The more than $2 billion in investments raised from this game-changing program are already at work in Washington, funding everything from wildfire prevention to public transit access to efforts to reduce air pollution in overburdened communities — and it’s only just gotten started. In the next decade, it’s expected to create 40,000 new jobs and unleash $9 billion in economic growth. This vote also protected the path forward for Washington to join forces with the California-Quebec market — a move that is expected to create long-term stability and drive even greater climate progress.

“Now that Washington state has shown the nation how to move from pledges to policy, other states need to follow its lead. The decisions made over the next five years will profoundly influence our ability to avoid the worst harms of a changing climate. This is precisely the time we need states to take action. Analysis after analysis underscore that the U.S. cannot meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement without strong follow-through from states on their climate targets. That’s why state policies that drive down pollution to safer levels — like Washington’s — are so critical to ramp up.

“Washington’s program remains the gold-standard for state climate policy. We’re hopeful that other states will take a page out of the Evergreen State’s book now that it’s proven bold action on climate is not only possible — it's popular.”

• EDF President Fred Krupp