Welch: State’s climate act failing to deliver on promises
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, December 24, 2025
By Todd Welch / Herald Columnist
Democratic lawmakers in Olympia sold the Climate Commitment Act with this promise: higher fuel costs today would mean stronger protection from floods tomorrow. That pledge helped justify what amounts to a hidden tax, now adding roughly 57 cents per gallon to gasoline, pushing the CCA’s effective fuel tax above Washington’s long-standing 52-cent gas tax.
But as roads wash out, towns flood, hillsides collapse, and levees fail across the state, one fact is impossible to ignore: the money didn’t go where voters were told it would. The promise was broken.
Severe flooding has once again hammered communities across Washington; damaging homes, washing out highways, and forcing families from their neighborhoods. First responders, emergency managers, public works crews and volunteers have stepped up under dangerous and exhausting conditions, and they deserve real gratitude for protecting lives and property.
What deserves far less praise is the state’s preparation.
This is exactly what Washington’s rainy-day fund exists for; and it’s nowhere near where it should be. The Budget Stabilization Account was designed to help the state respond to emergencies like environmental disasters. Flooding is a textbook example. Yet after years of budget decisions that prioritized new spending over savings, Washington’s rainy-day fund now ranks near the bottom nationally, 49th overall and second lowest in terms of adequacy. When disaster strikes, the cupboard is nearly bare.
That failure of preparedness is mirrored in how the Climate Commitment Act’s money has been spent.
When lawmakers passed the CCA in 2021, they led with floods. The law’s opening language warned of worsening flooding due to climate change and promised that billions in new revenue would build resilience against these threats. Voters were told the pain at the pump would translate into protection on the ground.
Instead, of the roughly $1.5 billion spent so far under the CCA, only about one-half of 1 percent has gone toward flood mitigation, despite flooding being one of Washington’s most predictable and damaging climate risks. In fact, the state spent twice as much on teaching kids how to ride bicycles as it did on protecting homes, roads and levees from flooding.
The examples are hard to defend. A multimillion-dollar project on the Nooksack River in Whatcom County paid for additional government staff but delivered no physical improvements to reduce flood risk. An Ellensburg initiative wildly overstated its climate benefits, claiming millions of dollars would offset emissions equal to nearly a million cars, numbers that don’t hold up under basic scrutiny.
Meanwhile, King County has acknowledged it knew certain levees were vulnerable, with more than a dozen still at risk, yet repairs and warnings lagged. Mudslides and washouts have closed highways across the state, isolating communities and choking commerce. A long stretch of U.S. 2 may remain closed for months.
This didn’t happen because the state lacked money. Overall state spending has nearly doubled in recent years, growing far faster than inflation or population. What’s been missing isn’t revenue, it’s priority.
Under Gov. Jay Inslee, Washington imposed one of the most expensive climate programs in the country while failing to fund the very protections used to justify it. The result is higher costs for families, weakened emergency reserves, and communities left exposed when the rain comes.
Now, with a supplemental budget proposal expected soon and renewed talk of tax increases already circulating, lawmakers should treat these floods as a warning, not an excuse. Washington doesn’t need higher taxes or new programs layered on top of broken ones. It needs accountability.
If floods were justification for the Climate Commitment Act, then flood protection should have been the priority. That means rebuilding the rainy-day fund, fixing levees, reinforcing highways, and redirecting existing CCA revenues toward real disaster mitigation, not bureaucracy, not inflated claims, and not political talking points.
If the state’s flagship climate law can’t deliver on its core promise in the midst of the very crises it cites, then it isn’t just failing policy.
It’s costing Washingtonians dearly at the pump, and in flooded neighborhoods across the state.
Todd Welch is a columnist for The Herald, addressing local and state issues. He lives in Everett.
