Our good friends at Faith Action Network organize a yearly Interfaith Advocacy Day in Olympia. They organize meetings with our state legislators and provide educational opportunities about their FAN’s legislative priorities as well as about the legislative process. If you haven’t had a chance to go to one of their Interfaith Advocacy Days, our SSCCAN leadership team highly recommends that you do so. Building relationships with our legislators, letting them know that we care about what is happening to our environment and connecting our concerns about climate with other legislative issues is incredibly important.
FAN’s legislative priorities are under the following broad categories: Promote Economic Justice; Protect and Expand the Social Safety Net; Address Climate Change and Environmental Justice; Increase Safe Affordable Housing and Prevent Homelessness; Advance Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Reform our Incarceration System; Foster Public Safety and Civil Rights; Expand Access to Health Care
The specific goals that address climate change and environmental justice are as follows:
Address Climate Change and Environmental Justice
- Cumulative Risk Burden Pollution Act (CURB) would require monitoring currently- unaddressed pollutants affecting health and mandate that permit applications that add cumulative pollution be denied or conditionally approved.
- WA Recycling and Packaging Act (WRAP) would create graduated fees for packaging manufacturers based on how reusable, compostable, or recyclable their products are. Funds recycling services, shifts recycling costs onto manufacturers, and ensures materials are recycled.
- Clean School Buses (HB 1368 + Operating Budget ask of $60.5m) would fund the transition of WA’s 10,000+ diesel school buses to electricity, helping both climate change and children’s health.
- Hold Oil Companies Accountable and Address Gas Prices. Emerging legislation to require oil industry transparency and accountability.
We, at SSCAN, appreciate the work of Faith Action Network. We are still developing our own 2024 legislative priorities but the will almost certainly overlap with the priorities outlined above.
You can learn more at the FAN website: https://fanwa.org/interfaith-advocacy-day/