Seattle/King County Climate News
Robin Briggs
Seattle
City Council appointed Mark Solomon as the new Councilmember for District 2, by a vote of 5-3 in a runoff with Adonis Duckworth. Mark Solomon is a Crime Prevention Specialist with the Seattle Police Department. His letter of application listing his qualifications and priorities is here.
Mayor Harrell has reorganized his staff. Former Deputy Mayor Adiam Emery will take over from Greg Spotts when he leaves in Feb., and Jessyn Farrell, who was director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment, will take over as deputy mayor of transportation, parks, and climate action. Michelle Caulfield, who was previously interim OSE director, will be interim director again. The City will undertake a national search for a new OSE director.
King County
King County Metro won an $80M Federal grant to expand RapidRide service to Renton, Kent, and Auburn, with service expected to start in 2027. The new route, RapidRide I, is expected to enhance Route 160, formerly Route 169 and 180 between Auburn Station and downtown Renton.
King County Executive Dow Constantine has nominated three candidates to fill the open seat on County Council left by Dave Upthegrove (Seattle Times, paywall), who was elected as the State Lands Commissioner. The three are: "Karen Keiser, a former longtime state senator from Des Moines; Julia Patterson, a former County Council member and state legislator from SeaTac; and De’Sean Quinn, a current Tukwila City Council member." The district includes parts of the the cities of Renton, SeaTac, Normandy Park, Des Moines and Kent. County Council will vote on which one of the three will take the empty seat as County Councilmember on an interim basis until elections in November. The appointment must be made by 60 days from Jan. 15, when Upthegrove resigned.
State
The Legislative Session is a few weeks into a long session. Many, many bills have been filed, many bills have had hearings, and a few bills have already been voted on in committee. You can sign up for 350 Washington's Civic Action Team to receive alerts on climate bills as they reach critical juncture points and need help to proceed. Futurewise sends alerts on land use bills, you can sign up here. The Environmental Priorities Coalition is having their lobby day on Feb 6. More info and sign up here.
Sen Joe Nguyen took a new position under Bob Ferguson as Director of the Department of Commerce. Sharon Shewmake has taken his place as chair of the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee. Emily Alvarado has taken his position as Senator of the 34th, and Brianna Thomas, formerly legislative aide to Lorena González, has taken Emily Alvarado's spot as Representative in the 34th.
The Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank, has filed a lawsuit against the State over delays in reporting greenhouse gas emissions (Seattle Times, paywall). A state law requires the State to report every two years, and the State is only just now releasing data covering 2021 (amazingly, this is only one month late). "The report showed that overall greenhouse gas emissions dipped 13.8% in 2020 during the pandemic but rose 8.8% in 2021, largely driven by the transportation sector."
Puget Sound Energy has permission from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission to raise electricity rates by 18.6% and fossil gas rates by 12.6% over a two year period "PSE has said to comply with the clean energy laws, it will need to shift away from natural gas and coal, which made up nearly half of its electricity generation in 2023, and acquire an unprecedented amount of renewable power by 2030." The UTC approved some rate hikes to cover PSE's expenses for following clean energy codes, but declined to fund accelerating depreciation of PSE's fossil gas infrastructure. Likewise, PSE did not get approval for raising rates to provide more incentives for heat pumps. The passage of I-2066 took both of these options off the table. Seattle City Light is also raising electrical rates, but by much less: the percentage will vary for different customers but no customer will see a rise greater than 7%.
Elsewhere
Carbon Dioxide Levels Rose by a Record Amount Last Year, according to Yale Environment 360. "The figure exceeds the most pessimistic predictions of the U.K. Met Office, which says that even record-high emissions from fossil fuels cannot fully explain the surge in carbon dioxide." At least some of the increased emissions are from "natural" sources like wildfires and droughts.
A new paper published in Nature describes how we can expect storms in the Pacific Northwest to get much worse with climate change. They find that by 2100, atmospheric rivers striking the Pacific Northwest could be not only quite a bit stronger, but could triple the amount of storm surge compared to current storms, assuming continued high greenhouse gas emissions.
In Oregon, No More Freeways is suing Metro, the regional government agency over the recently updated transportation plan, claiming that the plan doesn't live up to the aggressive climate goals mandated by the state. The plan fails to decrease driving, and it has incorrect assumptions in its modelling as well as two conflicting sets of data it relies on to show that it meets standards.
Adoption of heat pumps nationwide is growing, and is taking market share from gas furnaces. It has been a long, steady growth pattern over years. "Last year, nine states — California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island — raised the stakes by pledging that heat pumps will make up at least 65% of residential heating and cooling equipment sales by the end of the decade"