Seattle/King County Climate News
Robin Briggs
Seattle
Seattle received a $5.5M grant from FEMA to install air conditioning at five branch libraries: Columbia, Fremont, Queen Anne, University, and West Seattle as part of a program to establish resilience hubs. FEMA will supply 90% of the funding, and the remaining costs are split evenly between the City and the State. Completion is expected in two years.
Seattle received $17.2M grant to support the new Building Emissions Performance Standards from the US Department of Energy under the Inflation Reduction Act's support for Latest and Zero Building Codes provision. The money will be used to fund enhanced services for building owners making conversions, starting in late 2025 and 2026.
Seattle's Commercial Energy Code update has been proposed by the mayor to council. ShiftZero notes that as a result of advocacy, "these code updates are significant to support alignment and compliance with Seattle’s BEPS policy, and are a foundation for keeping the city on a path to emissions reduction goals." They are before the Council now, and if approved will go into effect in November.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has voted to endorse Seattle's Transportation Levy, on the ballot in November, and you can read their rationale here. Ryan Packer appeared on the Hacks and Wonks podcast, and in addition to an excellent conversation about Vision 0, talked in depth about the Levy (audio here, starting at 33:30).
City Council continues to delay action on I-137, the city initiative to fund social housing. The initiative has enough signatures, but the city hasn't yet acted to put it on the ballot, or decided whether to add a competing initiative alongside.
State
The Seattle Times has endorsed a No vote on I-2117. Volunteer opportunities to help out the No campaign are here.
The Northwest Progressive Institute released polling results for I-2117 and I-2066 showing both are polling below 50%. Polls from July reported in the Seattle Times on the contrary suggested that a Yes vote was more likely.
I-2066 is a state-wide initiative on the ballot that would basically make it impossible to make laws around transitioning off natural gas. The No on I-2066 campaign has set up a website here, and ShiftZero has a one-pager on it. Among other local impacts that would have on us, it would remove large parts of Seattle and King County's Commercial Energy Codes and rollback Seattle's Building Emissions Performance Standards. Individuals can pledge to vote no, Groups can endorse opposition, and cities and counties can pass resolutions opposing it (example draft resolution).
The Commerce Dept has announced $26M in grants for grid resiliency and reliability under the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. "Projects that increase the reliability and resiliency of power grids within small utility territories are eligible for this funding. Projects must improve the reliability and resilience of the grid against disruptive events, such as extreme weather, wildfires, and/or natural disasters."