Seattle/King County Climate News
Robin Briggs
Seattle
Nilu Jenks announced that she will run for the open seat in District 5 this year, to replace interim councillor Debora Juarez. She has qualified for Democracy Vouchers. She ran for the seat in 2021 with a strong climate platform and came in a close third in the primary. Since then she has been working for Fair Vote Washington.
SDOT released the Transportation Levy Delivery Plan for 2026. In 2024, Seattle voters approved a new 8-year Transportion Levy, and this document details the work they plan to get done this year. See pg 6 for a map of the city with all the projects listed.
The new tax for social housing brought in twice the amount of money the was originally projected. The Seattle Social Housing Developer will have $115 million to acquire existing apartment buildings and develop new ones. The developer is planning to buy 300 new units in 2026.
King County
A coalition of advocates is pushing for a King County Transit Funding Measure in 2026. This would be similar to (and possibly replace) the Seattle Transit Measure that funds extra bus service and transit infrastructure improvements for Seattle, and would appear as a question on the November ballot simlar to the transportation or libraries levy. The coalition includes Transportation Choices Coalition, the Nondrivers Alliance, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587.
State
Prices on our state carbon market have reached a record high. Climate Commitment Act auctions have raised $1.1B since Sept. The Sept price was $64.30, which went up in Dec. to $70.86. This triggered an additional auction, to be held in February. In all, the CCA has raised $4.3B.
Elsewhere
Emissions in the US went up by 2.5% in 2025, according to a preliminary report from the Rhodium Group. Increases in the power sector were caused by higher natural gas prices which meant that more coal was used for power generation. In addition, demand for power is increasing. From Canary Media: “This year is a bit of a warning sign on the power sector,” Gaffney said. “With growing demand, if we continue meeting it with the dirtiest of the fossil generators that currently exist, that’s going to increase emissions.” Cold weather drove increased emissions from heating buildings. Trump's anti-climate policies have not (yet) had a big impact. Overall U.S. emissions are 6% below pre-pandemic levels and 18% lower than in 2005.
Congestion pricing in NYC is meeting its goals. Pollution and traffic in the tolled zone is down by 11%, and traffic outside the zone has not changed. The zone has raised $500M for public transit. And business has improved as well: the number of visitors is up 3.4% and sales tax revenue is up 6.3%.