2023 Revised Code of Washington › Title 70A - Environmental Health and Safety › Chapter 70A.65 - Greenhouse Gas Emissions—Cap and Invest Program. › 70A.65.260 - Climate commitment account.

RCW 70A.65.260
Climate commitment account.
(1) The climate commitment account is created in the state treasury. The account must receive moneys distributed to the account from the climate investment account created in RCW 70A.65.250. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. Projects, activities, and programs eligible for funding from the account must be physically located in Washington state and include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) Implementing the working families' tax credit in RCW 82.08.0206;
(b) Supplementing the growth management planning and environmental review fund established in RCW 36.70A.490 for the purpose of making grants or loans to local governments for the purposes set forth in RCW 43.21C.240, 43.21C.031, 36.70A.500, and 36.70A.600, for costs associated with RCW 36.70A.610, and to cover costs associated with the adoption of optional elements of comprehensive plans consistent with RCW 43.21C.420;
(c) Programs, activities, or projects that reduce and mitigate impacts from greenhouse gases and copollutants in overburdened communities, including strengthening the air quality monitoring network to measure, track, and better understand air pollution levels and trends and to inform the analysis, monitoring, and pollution reduction measures required in RCW 70A.65.020;
(d) Programs, activities, or projects that deploy renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind power, and projects to deploy distributed generation, energy storage, demand-side technologies and strategies, and other grid modernization projects;
(e) Programs, activities, or projects that increase the energy efficiency or reduce greenhouse gas emissions of industrial facilities including, but not limited to, proposals to implement combined heat and power, district energy, or on-site renewables, such as solar and wind power, to upgrade the energy efficiency of existing equipment, to reduce process emissions, and to switch to less emissions intensive fuel sources;
(f) Programs, activities, or projects that achieve energy efficiency or emissions reductions in the agricultural sector including:
(i) Fertilizer management;
(ii) Soil management;
(iii) Bioenergy;
(iv) Biofuels;
(v) Grants, rebates, and other financial incentives for agricultural harvesting equipment, heavy duty trucks, agricultural pump engines, tractors, and other equipment used in agricultural operations;
(vi) Grants, loans, or any financial incentives to food processors to implement projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
(vii) Renewable energy projects;
(viii) Farmworker housing weatherization programs;
(ix) Dairy digester research and development;
(x) Alternative manure management; and
(xi) Eligible fund uses under RCW 89.08.615;
(g) Programs, activities, or projects that increase energy efficiency in new and existing buildings, or that promote low carbon architecture, including use of newly emerging alternative building materials that result in a lower carbon footprint in the built environment over the life cycle of the building and component building materials;
(h) Programs, activities, or projects that promote the electrification and decarbonization of new and existing buildings, including residential, commercial, and industrial buildings;
(i) Programs, activities, or projects that improve energy efficiency, including district energy, and investments in market transformation of high efficiency electric appliances and equipment for space and water heating;
(j) Clean energy transition and assistance programs, activities, or projects that assist affected workers or people with lower incomes during the transition to a clean energy economy, or grow and expand clean manufacturing capacity in communities across Washington state including, but not limited to:
(i) Programs, activities, or projects that directly improve energy affordability and reduce the energy burden of people with lower incomes, as well as the higher transportation fuel burden of rural residents, such as bill assistance, energy efficiency, and weatherization programs;
(ii) Community renewable energy projects that allow qualifying participants to own or receive the benefits of those projects at reduced or no cost;
(iii) Programs, activities, or other worker-support projects for bargaining unit and nonsupervisory fossil fuel workers who are affected by the transition away from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy. Worker support may include, but is not limited to: (A) Full wage replacement, health benefits, and pension contributions for every worker within five years of retirement; (B) full wage replacement, health benefits, and pension contributions for every worker with at least one year of service for each year of service up to five years of service; (C) wage insurance for up to five years for workers reemployed who have more than five years of service; (D) up to two years of retraining costs, including tuition and related costs, based on in-state community and technical college costs; (E) peer counseling services during transition; (F) employment placement services, prioritizing employment in the clean energy sector; and (G) relocation expenses;
(iv) Direct investment in workforce development, via technical education, community college, institutions of higher education, apprenticeships, and other programs including, but not limited to:
(A) Initiatives to develop a forest health workforce established under RCW 76.04.521; and
(B) Initiatives to develop new education programs, emerging fields, or jobs pertaining to the clean energy economy;
(v) Transportation, municipal service delivery, and technology investments that increase a community's capacity for clean manufacturing, with an emphasis on communities in greatest need of job creation and economic development and potential for commute reduction;
(k) Programs, activities, or projects that reduce emissions from landfills and waste-to-energy facilities through diversion of organic materials, methane capture or conversion strategies, installation of gas collection devices and gas control systems, monitoring and reporting of methane emissions, or other means, prioritizing funding needed for any activities by local governments to comply with chapter 70A.540 RCW;
(l) Carbon dioxide removal projects, programs, and activities; and
(m) Activities to support efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change affecting Indian tribes, including capital investments in support of the relocation of Indian tribes located in areas at heightened risk due to anticipated sea level rise, flooding, or other disturbances caused by climate change. The legislature intends to dedicate at least $50,000,000 per biennium from the account for purposes of this subsection.
(2) Moneys in the account may not be used for projects or activities that would violate tribal treaty rights or result in significant long-term damage to critical habitat or ecological functions. Investments from this account must result in long-term environmental benefits and increased resilience to the impacts of climate change.
(3) During the 2023-2025 fiscal biennium, the legislature may appropriate moneys from the climate commitment account for activities related to environmental justice, including implementation of chapter 314, Laws of 2021.
[ 2023 c 475 § 939; 2022 c 179 § 17; 2021 c 316 § 29.]
NOTES:
Effective date—2023 c 475: See note following RCW 16.76.030.