Seattle/King County Climate News

[Robin Briggs]

Hello! I hope you are all managing to stay dry amid the flooding. 

I will be on hiatus for the first two months of 2026, and will resume this newsletter in March. This means I will be leaving you on your own while the Legislative Session grinds on. If you are looking for news on the Session, I heartily recommend joining 350 Washington's Civic Action team, if you haven't already. They send out bi-weekly action updates that will let you know what bills are being considered, and also give you an easy way to weigh in on them. Joining is easy: go to 350wa.org/cat, and click on "Sign Up for our Civic Action Team alerts" in the upper right corner.

This will likely be the last mailing before the end of the year. I hope you are able to have a relaxing time over the holidays.

Seattle

The City Council will vote on the Comprehensive Plan on Tuesday, Dec 16 at 2pm. The Connected Communities Coalition is inviting people to come to City Hall in person to comment,  or, if you can't, to send an email to City Council.

Port of Seattle

Burien, Des Moines and SeaTac are suing the Port of Seattle over the proposed airport expansion (Seattle Times, paywall). They are challenging the findings of non-significance in the Environment Impact Statement. SeaTac Airport had a record-breaking year in 2024, and is on track to break new records in number of passenger flights this year as well.

State

The State is facing huge budget deficits, and will likely have to make budget cuts. But could this also be the year that we get a state income tax? Sen Saldaña and Rep Scott have proposed a JumpStart-style payroll tax for the state (Seattle Times, paywall); this is like an income tax for high earners, but is applied to their employer and not them. Some legislators have been hinting that they may try for a straight income tax, as almost all other states already have.

Elsewhere

Economists released a report on how much climate change is costing the average American household right now (HeatMap, requires login), and found that costs range from $400 to $900 a year, depending on how much extreme weather is attributed to climate change. One big cost driver is increases in home insurance, and health impacts from wildfire smoke are also significant. The costs of climate mitigation and adaptation fall most heavily on the poor, but so do the impacts.

Trump is rolling back fuel efficiency requirements for new vehicles (NYTimes, paywall). The new plan "would require automakers to achieve an average of 34.5 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks in model year 2031, down from the standard of 50.4 miles per gallon set by the Biden administration." Trump's goal is to make gas cars cheaper, and this change will also reduce income for EV makers who previously made a significant amount of income from reselling fuel efficiency credits.

The EPA is delaying requirements for the oil and gas industry to limit emissions of methane (NYTimes, paywall), and may cancel these requirements altogether. Methane is a major pollutant, with about 80 times more warming impact than CO2. The new regulations were slated to begin this year, and are now delayed until 2027.

What the Air You Breathe May Be Doing to Your Brain (NYTimes, paywall). More evidence that air pollution, much of which comes from private vehicles, is causing significant negative impacts to human health, including dementia as well as heart disease.