(1) The legislature finds that rapid innovations in low carbon transportation technologies, including electric vehicles and clean transportation fuels, are at the threshold of widespread commercial deployment. In order to help prompt the use of clean fuels, other states have successfully implemented programs that reduce the carbon intensity of their transportation fuels. California and Oregon have both implemented low carbon fuel standards that are similar to the program created in chapter 317, Laws of 2021, and both states have experienced biofuel sector growth and have successfully sited large biofuel projects that had originally been planned for Washington. Washington state has extensively studied the potential impact of a clean fuels program, and most projections show that a low carbon fuel standard would decrease greenhouse gas and conventional air pollutant emissions, while positively impacting the state's economy.
(2) The legislature further finds that the health and welfare of the people of the state of Washington is threatened by the prospect of crumbling or swamped coastlines, rising water, and more intense forest fires caused by higher temperatures and related droughts, all of which are intensified and made more frequent by the volume of greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2017, the transportation sector contributes 45 percent of Washington's greenhouse gas emissions, and the legislature's interest in the life cycle of the fuels used in the state arises from a concern for the effects of the production and use of these fuels on Washington's environment and public health, including its air quality, snowpack, and coastline.
(3) Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to support the deployment of clean transportation fuel technologies through a carefully designed program that reduces the carbon intensity of fuel used in Washington, in order to:
(a) Reduce levels of conventional air pollutants from diesel and gasoline that are harmful to public health;
(b) Reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels, which are the state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions; and
(c) Create jobs and spur economic development based on innovative clean fuel technologies.
[ 2021 c 317 § 1.]
NOTES:
Severability—2021 c 317: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected. In the event that there is litigation on the provisions of section 3(6) of this act or any other provision of this act, it is the intent of the legislature that the remainder of the act shall continue to be enforced and if such provisions are held invalid, the remainder of the act shall not be affected." [ 2021 c 317 § 31.]