Editorial: Climate Commitment Act a two-fer for Washington
Published 1:30 am Saturday, December 20, 2025
By The Herald Editorial Board
Washington state’s Climate Commitment Act, while in effect since 2023, has completed its first full and unfettered year of carbon allowance auctions and climate investments.
The threat of a lawsuit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and an initiative challenge that threatened the landmark carbon cap-and-invest program proved a drag on its viability and the program’s ability to generate revenue in its first two years.
That has since been lifted by a significant vote of confidence in November 2024’s rejection of Initiative 2117 and the announcement this October by the U.S. Supreme Court, declining to hear appeals of a 2023 District Court and a 2024 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that upheld the CCA.
A quick refresher: The goal behind the Climate Commitment Act is a two-fer, explained Altinay Karasapan, regulatory policy manager for Climate Solutions — a nonprofit advocate for the clean-energy transformation — and point person on the issue of the state’s auctions of allowances for carbon emissions.
The carbon auctions place a price on emissions, requiring the state’s heaviest polluters pay for the carbon dioxide emissions they produce, including fossil fuel refineries, power plants and other industries. The revenue generated by the auctions — $395 million in the December auction and a total of $1.6 billion for 2025 — is then made available for a range of investments that advance clean energy projects, fund climate solutions and cut energy costs for families.
Sold by the metric ton, the allowances have averaged a price of about $60.92 this year, fetching $70.86 during the December auction, above market prices that were seen in 2024. But those lower prices, Karasapan explained, were held down artificially by the uncertainty caused by Initiative 2117, which would have repealed the Climate Commitment Act and its carbon auctions. State voters rejected the initiative with a 62 percent majority. With the uncertainty removed at the end of 2024, the prices bid by polluters this year increased, she said.
As the program moves forward, two pressures will influence those market prices. Over time a cap is placed on the allowances to be auctioned, making the allowances more valuable, but at the same time, work continues on an agreement that is expected to link the state’s market with markets in California and Quebec. Those linked markets, Karasapan said, should moderate prices, providing more predictability and stability for the auctions.
The other moderating force are price ceilings set by that state, including a top ceiling of $88 a ton. “We’re still comfortably below that window,” Karasapan said. As well, there’s a lower ceiling around $60 a ton that has triggered additional auctions that provide more allowances but also bring in more revenue.
The investments: That price on carbon is meant to encourage industries to find ways to reduce their emissions, said Leah Missik, state legislative director for Climate Solutions, while at the same time funding solutions that clean the air, aid the transition to clean energy and fund other climate and environmental projects.
Since the law’s first auctions in 2023, a total of $4.3 billion has been raised for those programs.
“Not only are these investments helping cut climate pollution, which is obviously very important, as we’re seeing a lot of climate impacts in Washington right now, but a lot of these are also helping lower everyday cost of living for folks,” Missik said. That assistance includes rebates for electric vehicles for lower-income families and heat pumps and other home appliances that lower home energy costs. The fund also was used in 2024 to provide a $200 energy rebate to households in the state.
As lawmakers look at funding priorities in the upcoming year, Climate Solutions has made a modest ask, suggesting continued support for three effective programs, including:
$100 million to fund a new round of electric vehicle rebates for lower-income families;
$50 million to continue the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate (HEAR) program an its assistance in replacing furnaces with heat pumps and other energy efficient appliances; and
$50 million for the state’s electric vehicle charging station program, providing wider access to charging stations across the state.
Keeping track of progress: A set of dashboards and interactive maps allow the public to track progress and see where investments are being made, including in Snohomish County. Click on a dot and a table provides a brief description of the project, what was spent, its benefits and for some projects how many metric tons of carbon are expected to be reduced over the course of the project’s life time. For example, a Safe Routes to School grant in Marysville was allocated $5 million to build sidewalks, bike lanes, ADA curb ramps and traffic signals and lighting at Cascade Elementary, with a projected reduction of 1.7 metric tons of carbon.
“It’s unprecedented to have such a dedicated pot of funding to climate dollars, with the uncertainty of the federal government and all that funding going away, and just the ever growing need for addressing climate change,” Karasapan said. “We’re so lucky to have this as a resource in Washington.”
While that funding is dedicated to reducing pollution, adding clean energy and strengthening communities — with a requirement that 35 percent to 40 percent benefit “overburdened” communities (those often with the greatest impacts from climate change and pollution) and another 10 percent for Tribal support — there still are decisions for state legislators to make regarding which projects are funded.
A state Department of Ecology report released this year provides further detail on how the auction revenue is being allocated and spent, divided among three main accounts for reducing carbon emissions, supporting the transition to clean energy and addressing air quality and health disparities.
The report also attempts to put a number for the CCA’s reductions in greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions, estimated that those investments made in 2024 are expected to reduce emissions equivalent to 335,171 metric tons of carbon dioxide. But that amount may have been held down by a legislative requirement that suspended some spending until this year because of the uncertainty over Initiative 2117.
The report also reminds that the declining supply of carbon emissions will be the main driver for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the programs and investments supported by the cap-and-invest revenue are further reducing pollution and addressing climate inequities.
A climate leader: At a time when the Trump administration has sought out every opportunity to scuttle clean energy initiatives, instead favoring and subsidizing polluting sources of energy — even ordering that a plant in Centralia keep burning coal rather than switch to natural gas in defiance of an agreement with the state that it end the use of coal at the end of this month — Washington state must continue the work of the CCA to provide a disincentive to pollution and generate revenue for projects that promote clean air and other environmental benefits and aid the clean energy transition.
Further assessment and tracking of the projects, their spending and their effectiveness — and sound choices in the programs and investments selected for funding — are important to maintaining the significant support that the voting public delivered a year ago.
“We are really lucky here in Washington,” said Missik. “We are a climate leader, and that is to our own benefit. The Climate Commitment Act is working, and it is leading to these really important community investments across the state.”
