Seattle/King County Climate News
Robin Briggs
Seattle
Councilmember Maritza Rivera withdrew a controversial budget proviso that could have frozen about $53M in previously-approved funding for anti-displacement housing. The Council did pass a requirement for more detailed reporting on how the money is spent.
ShiftZero issued a letter on the proposed draft changes to Seattle Commercial Energy Codes. Marco Lowe from the Mayor's Office has proposed reductions to the original energy provisions, and this letter is in response. The codes are being discussed in the Construction Codes Advisory Board (CCAB).
King County
King County Metro reported ridership is up by 22% from a year ago. Ridership is up across all modes, but has not yet returned to 2019 levels. Ridership in 2023 was 62% of what it was in 2019, and service hours were also only 83% of what they were in 2019 due to labor shortages. Trips are now spread out more throughout the day. Surveys show that "“service quality, specifically on-time performance, is the largest barrier to taking transit more often, followed by safety, availability, convenience, and cost.” Metro is preparing bus route changes around the Link opening of Lynnwood, East Link, and Federal Way South, the opening of the RapidRide G up Madison, and Stride BRT on I-405. They plan to focus on stabilizing and growing their busiest routes.
State
Amtrak Cascades rail service will now have free fares for youth 18 and younger. Funded by the Move Ahead Washington transportation package, and the Climate Commitment Act.
The Dept of Ecology has published new rules governing emissions from landfills that should reduce the methane emissions by about 38%, equivalent to removing about 308,000 gas powered cars from the road. These new standards follow from the State's passage in 2022 of HB 1663. Washington now joins Oregon, California, and Maryland in having state limits that are stronger than the Federal standards. To meet the new regulations, more landfills will have to capture the methane, as well as fix methane leaks. Nationwide, many landfills are emitting more than is allowed, just because there is lax enforcement. There is more that could be done at the State level, the article notes: "Advocates wanted to see the state require landfills to use methane detection technology that would help landfills conduct more complete methane surveys, and require gas collection systems to be put in place faster. Landfills can wait five years after they expand before they’re required to put in a gas collection system, but food waste decays much faster than that."
Elsewhere
New York Gov Hochul has put New York City's congestion pricing program on indefinite hold. It was scheduled to go into effect at the end of June. Congestion pricing was widely expected to reduce GHG emissions, as well as funding the city's transit system. Now it is not clear where the funding that the transit system needs will come from. Speculation is that the Governor was concerned that more suburban commuters would work from home, imperiling downtown recovery. However, research from smaller, pedestrian zones in Manhattan shows increased sales after traffic was reduced. Robinson Meyer from Heatmap, one of the foremost climate reporters in the country, wrote: "If it holds, then Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision today to delay congestion pricing indefinitely in New York will be a generational setback for climate policy in the United States." He wrote an excellent piece that goes into the implications of the decision for Heatmap Daily, Kathy Hochul's Climate Betrayal.
The Biden Administration issued new fuel mileage standards (NYT, paywall), requiring automakers to have a fleet average of 65 mile per gallon by 2031. Along with this, the price of EVs has declined enough that more people can buy them: Electric Cars Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable (NYT, paywall).