H-0947.1
HOUSE BILL 1749
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Pollet, Lekanoff, Parshley, and Scott
Read first time 01/30/25. Referred to Committee on Environment & Energy.
AN ACT Relating to ensuring consideration of climate change, carbon sequestration, environmental health disparities, and treaty-protected and cultural resources in the state environmental policy act; adding a new section to chapter 43.21C RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that the state environmental policy act requires broad consideration by lead agencies of impacts of proposed government actions on diverse aspects of the natural and built environments and human health. While the state environmental policy act requires this broad analysis of all environmental impacts of a proposed action, the state environmental policy act checklist adopted by the department would be more accurate and useful in reflecting the obligations of project proponents and lead agencies if it more accurately incorporated crucial state and local adopted policies relating to addressing climate change. This includes improved identification of, or guidance to assess, the potential to improve or reduce carbon sequestration in state forests. The flaws of the current checklist and guidance, as compared to the actual statutory obligations of lead agencies, has led to several court decisions invalidating the state environmental policy act threshold determinations for proposed timber sales that did not consider the potential for carbon sequestration on individual proposed sales of mature complex forest.
(2) Similarly, the legislature finds that the current state environmental policy act checklist and review process does not give adequate guidance to ensure that applicants understand that they should be considering in threshold determinations: (a) The potential for projects and programs to significantly contribute to climate change, including from life-cycle emissions of greenhouse gases; (b) the potential to harm climate change related goals and policies related to promoting carbon sequestration; (c) the potential for increasing health disparities in overburdened communities and vulnerable communities; or (d) the potential for harming treaty-protected resources on ceded lands within Washington and adversely affecting access to, or preservation of, tribal cultural resources.