By Representative Mary Dye
January 8, 2026
As communities across Washington work to recover from severe flooding, one reality is impossible to ignore: our state’s “cap-and-invest” climate policy is failing the very people it was supposed to protect.
Families have been displaced. Farms and small businesses have suffered significant losses. Roads, bridges and homes have been damaged or destroyed. Yet after years of collecting more than $4 billion through the Climate Commitment Act’s cap-and-invest carbon tax, only a tiny fraction of that revenue has gone toward preparing for climate impacts like drought, flooding and increased wildfire risk. Indeed, majority Democrats in the state Legislature even cut wildfire funding last year.
The first paragraph of the cap-and-invest law’s legislative intent section rightly warned of climate impacts such as devastating wildfires, flooding and drought, and promised “actions to increase resilience of our communities, natural resource lands, and ecosystems” to reduce these impacts. The key issue for Washington residents is that the revenue generated by our carbon allowance auctions is not being spent in a way consistent with this legislative intent. I am urging my legislative colleagues to make a course correction.
Instead of prioritizing flood protection, much of the state’s carbon tax revenue has been absorbed by bureaucracy, planning, and symbolic programs — including spending on bicycle education for elementary and middle school students — while meaningful flood mitigation has been sidelined. The result is a system in which citizens pay higher fuel and utility costs but receive less protection, leaving flood victims to shoulder the burden of cleanup and rebuilding on their own.
That is a hard reality to explain to families standing in mud-filled living rooms or farmers staring at washed-out fields. Flood victims are not asking for bike-education programs or for ineffective bureaucratic planning. They are asking why the state collected climate dollars for the past three years but failed to invest in preventing the damage they are now forced to endure.
Analysis of state budget appropriations shows that nearly two-thirds of Climate Commitment Act spending has gone toward emissions-reduction programs. At the same time, less than 20% has been directed toward any form of climate adaptation. Flood mitigation, though promised, has remained an afterthought.
This problem will not resolve itself. Washington will continue to see earlier snowmelt, heavier winter rains, and higher peak river flows. This new weather reality means more droughts of longer duration and more flooding of increased intensity. This is our reality, regardless of how much carbon this state reduces on its own. Our cap-and-trade program cannot meaningfully change global temperatures — but it can change how prepared we are, how safe our communities are, and how resilient our infrastructure and economy can be.
That is why I introduced the Outdoor Recreation and Climate Adaptation (ORCA) Plan, House Bill 1288.
The ORCA Plan would redirect a portion of Climate Commitment Act revenue toward real, on-the-ground flood-mitigation projects identified by existing flood authorities — organizations with decades of experience managing rivers, floodplains, and aquatic habitats. These projects include floodplain restoration, levee improvements, culvert upgrades, and river work in the areas most likely to flood.
These are practical investments that would reduce flood damage, lower disaster response costs, protect farmland and infrastructure, and improve river health for fish and wildlife. They would deliver measurable results — not symbolic gestures.
Rural communities and agricultural producers are often the first to feel the impacts of flooding and the last to see meaningful help. They deserve better than being told climate dollars were spent — just not on protecting them.
This year’s legislative session continues through March 12. We only have a finite amount of time to act and deliver. Lawmakers have a clear choice: continue spending climate revenue in ways that offer little protection for Washington communities or refocus those dollars on resilience — where they can save homes, livelihoods and lives.
If the state is to continue taking more and more money from Washingtonians through the Climate Commitment Act, it must deliver real results for real people. Advancing the ORCA Plan is a necessary step toward making that happen.
Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, is the ranking Republican on the House Environment and Energy Committee. She represents the 9th Legislative District.