House and Senate Release Proposed 2025-2027 Capital Budgets

On Monday, the House and Senate released their proposed 2025-2027 capital budgets. The House proposes $7.6 billion in total spending, including $299 million in new Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funds. The Senate proposes $7.3 billion, including $391 million in new CCA investments. This does not include almost $1.1 billion in reappropriated CCA investments in both chambers’ proposals. You can find a good breakdown of both capital budget proposals in The Seattle Times. 

As with the operating and transportation budgets, we appreciate that the Legislature remains committed to investing in effective, commonsense climate and clean energy capital projects amidst a challenging budget situation. 

Key Issues

The details are subject to change as legislators align on a final budget. Here are some high-level takeaways on key Climate Commitment Act priorities in the House and Senate Capital Budget proposals: 

• The House reappropriates $47 million in grant funding for hard-to-decarbonize projects, while the Senate only reappropriates $28 million. These grants are crucial for facilitating emissions reductions in complex industrial processes.
• The Senate proposes $6 million in new investments in industrial symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis is a growing and innovative field in waste reduction, and funding this sector would be an effective counterpart to HB 1302, currently under consideration by the Legislature. 
• Both chambers reappropriate $77 million for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure; the Senate proposes $20 million in new spending and the House $10 million. This is a notable reduction in spending from the previous biennium’s budget (which included $105 million in new spending on EV charging). 
• The Senate reappropriates $16.4 million for a competitive grant program for dairy digesters, and the House $11 million. This is a reduction from the previous biennial budget. Dairy digesters lower emissions and increase renewable energy production while investing in our agriculture sector. Boosting funding is important to the competitiveness of Washington dairies and is one of the highest yielding investments in terms of emissions reductions.

You can explore the budget proposals in full at https://fiscal.wa.gov/. Subscribe to this newsletter if you aren’t already to stay updated on the budget proposals as they are amended and refined. 

Update on Priority Legislation

While budget deliberations have taken center stage in Olympia, we continue to track the progress of key climate and clean energy legislation: 

• HB 1975, which builds resilience against carbon market volatility and takes interim action while we prepare to link with California and Québec, passed out of the Senate Environment, Energy, & Technology Committee and is up for public hearing in Ways & Means on April 5. 
• HB 1409, which amends the Clean Fuel Standard to create a steadier compliance schedule, passed out of the Senate Environment, Energy, & Technology Committee and is up for public hearing in Ways & Means on April 5.
• HB 1912, which addresses the implementation of promised CCA exemptions for agricultural producers, passed the Senate Environment, Energy, & Technology Committee and is also up for public hearing in Ways & Means on April 5.
• HB 1018, which supports the development of fusion energy facilities in Washington, passed the Senate unanimously. 
• HB 1302 creates incentives for industrial symbiosis, a process by which neighboring industrial facilities collaborate to dramatically reduce waste. This bill passed out of the Senate Environment, Energy, & Technology Committee and is pending floor action. 
• SB 5036, which requires annual reporting of statewide emissions data, advanced out of the House Committee on Environment & Energy and now goes to the Appropriations committee. 

Clean & Prosperous Washington will continue to keep you updated on priority legislation as we approach the end of session.