With
climate change a hot political topic, one group of students is
advocating legislative change in Olympia regarding environmental policy.
Tomorrow, students from WashPIRG chapters at the UW, as well as
Evergreen State College, Whitman, Western Washington and Green River
Community College will be taking their Campus Climate Challenge to
Olympia for a day of environmental awareness and advocacy.
WashPIRG members will be meeting with several state representatives
and senators to discuss four environmentally progressive bills, which
they hope will be passed by the end of the current legislative session
on March 12.
“We feel that we can’t wait for the next legislative session to be
in place to pass these really important bills to help climate change,”
said Lexi Fish, WashPIRG campus organizer. “The issue of climate change
is so important it needs to be prioritized. We want to make sure these
bills are passed this session and are fully funded.”
WashPIRG, a nonprofit and nonpartisan public research group that
focuses on legislative issues in Washington state, is trying to gather
1,000 signatures from students to take with them to Olympia to show
that they have widespread support from like-minded peers. More than 600
signatures have been collected.
Fish said the bills are important, and hopes those representatives
and senators supporting them will “champion them and be a strong voice
supporting them.”
The four bills each focus on a different facet involving climate change.
The Climate Action and Green Jobs bill would make the Washington
State Department of Ecology responsible for implementing greenhouse gas
reduction goals and funding a grant-based green job-training program.
The Local Solutions to Global Warming bill would create grants for
cities and towns to reduce their environmental footprint through land
use and transportation planning. The Promoting Energy Efficiency in
Public Buildings bill would allow public buildings to be retrofitted in
order to reduce green house emissions, and the Affordable Efficient
Appliance bill would create tax incentives, such as zero sales tax, for
energy-efficient appliances.
“If these bills get passed there will be immediate action,” said
Sara Nolte, media intern for WashPIRG. “If we change things state-wide,
other states will follow. These are things that can be done here and
now and also be an investment in the future.”
[Reach reporter Garrett Troy at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]
