Our 2026 Legislative Session Recap
The 2026 legislative session has come to a close. It was a short session, and the Legislature had a significant budget shortfall to contend with. Our team worked alongside partners to advocate that Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funding be used in alignment with the intent of the law: Creating good jobs, reducing pollution, and transitioning to a clean energy economy.
Here is where the CCA budget landed on sine die:
The CCA budget totals are based on Clean & Prosperous analysis of the final transportation, capital, and operating budgets. We found a higher share of CCA funding swapped – meaning it was used to fill the state’s general budget gap – than has been publicly reported to-date. This is because we identified more than $80 million in swapped funding for ferries that had not been previously reported.
The Legislature ultimately declined to follow the Governor’s proposal to swap in CCA funding for the Working Families Tax Credit. Instead, they swapped $637 million of CCA revenue largely to replace bond funding for natural resources programs, like salmon enhancement and water quality projects.
We appreciate that the Legislature chose to swap CCA funding for programs that more closely align with the intent of the law. However, we continue to believe that using CCA dollars to backfill existing obligations delays needed pollution reduction investments and breaks trust with Washington voters.
Notable new investments in the final CCA budget include:
- $13M for Community EV Charging
- $60M for Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness
- $30.4M for Tribal Clean Energy and Climate Resilience
- $25M for Disaster and Flood Response
- $10M for Anaerobic Digester Development
- $4.6M for Climate-Smart Agricultural Equipment
- $25M for Washington Builds (Green Bank)
- $30M for Energy Assistance
- $56.5M for University Campus Decarbonization projects (UW, WSU, EWU)
Notable legislation passed this year:
- ESSB 6354 allows Rivian and Lucid to sell electric vehicles (EV) directly to customers in Washington state – an opportunity that already exists for Tesla. More access will make switching to an EV even easier for Washingtonians.
- HB 2251 streamlines CCA budget accounts and, going forward, will more strongly protect CCA revenue.
- HB 2367 ends the CCA exemption for the TransAlta coal plant, requiring the facility to purchase allowances for its emissions. This bill guards against the federal government’s attempts to keep the facility open beyond its agreed closure date
In our view, there was a concerning lack of legislation proposed or acted upon that meaningfully addresses Washington’s clean energy development challenges, as detailed in our Build Sustainable High Impact Infrastructure Together (Build SHIIT) report. As the state approaches its 2030 Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) target and the CCA’s cap ratchets down, more work is needed to harmonize the state’s ambitions with permitting constraints and growing economic opportunity.
Our upcoming study mission to Texas will be focused on how Washington state can build much more clean energy, much faster.
Early Bird Pricing for Study Mission 6.0 Ends Tomorrow
Today is your last chance to register with early bird pricing for Study Mission 6.0: Building Bigger & Faster in Texas! Prices will increase tomorrow, March 21.
From May 11-15, 2026, Clean & Prosperous will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, and clean energy advocates in Austin and Houston to explore how the nation’s clean energy growth leader is getting projects built.
Texas is rapidly scaling solar, wind, and battery storage, and attracting major investment in emerging decarbonization technologies. Meanwhile, as highlighted in our Build Sustainable High Impact Infrastructure Together (Build SHIIT) report, Washington ranks dead last in the country for clean energy growth.
Study Mission 6.0 will feature exciting, informative engagements, including:
- How to plan for and bring utility-scale renewable projects online with Austin Energy, Texas’s greenest utility that is currently working to bring a geothermal plant online in East Texas.
- Learning about the real-world impacts of electrifying your fleet with CapMetro, Austin’s transit provider, including a tour of their on-site 12-acre solar array and overhead bus charging infrastructure.
- Touring UT Austin’s Hydrogen ProtoHub, including their newly-finished solar array, enabling green hydrogen production on-site.
- Building the clean energy workforce with Goodwill Houston as we tour their hands-on workforce development lab supporting heat pump, EV charging station, and solar and storage installation.
You can find the agenda here – more is still to come!
Here are the details:
- When: Monday, May 11 – Friday, May 15, 2026
- Where: Austin and Houston, Texas
- Tickets: $3,650 per ticket. Prices will increase tomorrow March 21, 2026.
Tickets include lodging, meals, and activities in Texas. Delegation members will be responsible for their own travel into and out of Texas. You can get your tickets here.
Thank you to our sponsors for making Study Mission 6.0: Building Bigger & Faster in Texas possible!
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