Lawmakers in Olympia have bound Washington state's fortunes — literally — to the fight against climate change with a legislative blitz, enacting a "historic" suite of climate protections.
The annual push to promote electric vehicles and biofuels at the expense of gasoline and "dinosaur" diesel has again failed to woo a key Washington state senator who killed the bill twice before. But whether that'll matter this time is an open question.
State lawmakers will make another try at gas or carbon taxes in 2021 as debt rises, highways crumble and the atmosphere warms. They've been somewhere around 15 cents per gallon in the past, and new talks have started.
The 2020 Washington Legislature made it official state policy to reduce production of planet-warming gases but failed to pass any significant measures that would meet those ambitious goals.
Even with Democrats in charge of both houses of the Washington Legislature and the governor's mansion, the 2018 legislative session is far from a sure-fire win for environmentalists.
