Senator Murray: New Budget Deal’s Climate Priorities Are Critical for Washington State

Senator Murray: “The Senate Budget Committee has laid the framework to make a landmark federal investment in climate action… I am determined meet this moment with the urgency it demands to protect our planet for current and future generations.”

ICYMI: Senator Murray Calls for “Landmark Investment in Climate Action” in Seattle Times – MORE HERE

(Seattle, WA) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Budget Committee and one of the negotiators of the budget framework, issued the following statement on the newly announced FY2022 Budget Resolution’s climate priorities following Governor Jay Inslee’s emergency drought declaration yesterday.

“Governor Inslee’s latest emergency drought declaration is another stark reminder that the climate crisis is here and now—not some distant worry for another day. I don’t want our kids to have to live through droughts that get worse each year or to only know smoke filled skies in the summer. We need to tackle the climate crisis head on with a strong and decisive focus on curbing emissions.

“The Senate Budget Committee has laid the framework to make a landmark federal investment in climate action. Our committee’s proposed budget resolution would fund a historic clean energy standard, make a major investment in wildfire prevention and responsible forestry practices, provide commonsense clean energy tax incentives, and much more. The provisions in our budget resolution will help meet President Biden’s goal to achieve 80% clean electricity and cut carbon emissions economy-wide by 50% by 2030, all while promoting environmental justice and creating good paying, union jobs.

“We have a long way to go to get this ambitious plan passed into law, but I am determined meet this moment with the urgency it demands to protect our planet for current and future generations.”

The proposed FY2022 Budget Resolution that Senator Murray helped craft would fund: a Clean Energy Standard that would move the country’s electric grid toward renewable sources, clean energy and vehicle tax incentives, a Civilian Climate Corps, climate smart agriculture and wildfire prevention and forestry, the federal procurement of clean technologies, the weatherization and electrification of buildings, and the creation of a Clean Energy Accelerator. The Resolution would also propose new Methane Reduction and Polluter Import Fees to increase our emissions reductions.

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