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EVERETT—The Port of Everett was one of 11 recipients awarded a capital grant, funded with Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funds, by the Washington Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) Port Electrification Program.

The Port of Everett was awarded the $4.3 million competitive grant in August to be used to help fund a $5.8 million project to construct charging infrastructure at its South Terminal, procure its first zero-emission yard trucks and fund cleaner diesel-powered equipment that will allow Port tenant Everett Ship Repair the ability to use electric shore power for operations.

“This investment by Washington State into the Port of Everett’s seaport will reduce carbon emissions from maritime operations and build a foundation to continue to green our supply chain,” Port of Everett CEO Lisa Lefeber said. “A special thanks to our partners at WSDOT for their support and confidence in the Port of Everett’s efforts to reduce air emissions from our operations.”

“This project will create good family-wage jobs and apprenticeship opportunities in our community and continue the Port’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions in and around the maritime industry,” said Washington State Representative Mary Fosse.

This is the second grant funded by the CCA the Port has received. In January, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee visited the Port of Everett, having recently awarded a $5 million capital grant for Pier 3, where officials share with him their decarbonization plan and other efforts the seaport is undergoing to support a greener supply chain.

“When we do this [decarbonization] technology we lead the world and it’s happening right here in Washington State,” said Gov. Inslee during his January visit. “I am thrilled to see this investment. The Climate Commitment Act is pivotal at simultaneously reducing pollution and growing jobs.”

Within the last decade, the Port has invested more than $150 million in Seaport Modernization which includes stormwater treatment improvements, dock upgrades for larger ships transitioning to shore power, improvements that would account for future sea-level rise, cleaning up legacy contamination from former mill sites, and facility upgrades, to name a few.

The cleanup of former mill sites alone costs approximately $200 million. The Port worked with the Department of Ecology and the Legislature to create a first-ever extended grant agreement to secure the funds to execute the project.

The combined CCA grant awards ($9.3 million) to the Port are estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 140,000 metric tons, the Port says.

“The intent of the Climate Commitment Act is to reduce carbon emissions and that is exactly what the Port of Everett will do with this grant funding,” Washington State Senator June Robinson in statement regarding the recent grant for South Terminal. “Using the funds to invest in charging infrastructure, the Port will be able to build on this investment for years to come as they convert their cargo handling operations to zero-emissions technology. These kinds of investments are a win for Washington State in our efforts to fight climate change.”

The Washington Port Electrification Program was created by the Washington State Legislature in 2023 and funded by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA). For the 2023-2025 biennium, the Legislature allocated a total of $26.5 million for Port Electrification grants from the state’s Carbon Emissions Reductions Account.

Following a competitive review process, 2024 grant awards were presented to:

• Northwest Seaport Alliance ($2.6 million for shore power planning).
• Port of Anacortes ($1.03 million for shore power and zero emission equipment).
• Port of Bellingham ($2.8 million for shore power).
• Port of Benton ($ 2.7 million for shore power).
• Port of Edmonds ($1.5 million for shore power). 
• Port of Everett ($4.3 million for shore power, electric trucks and cleaner generators).
• Port of Friday Harbor ($7 million for shore power and electric trucks).
• Port of Kalama ($1.4 million for an electric boat dock).
• Port of Port Angeles ($525,408 for shore power and electric cargo equipment).
• Port of Ridgefield ($1.2 million for electric vehicle chargers).
• Port of Seattle ($1 million for shore power).

The projects identified below were funded directly by the Legislature in the 2023-2025 state transportation budget. They are separate from the competitive grant program outlined above.

• Northwest Seaport Alliance – $6.3 million to fund a zero-emission drayage truck demonstration project
• Northwest Seaport Alliance – $28 million to fund a zero-emission shore power infrastructure project
• Port of Bremerton – $2 million for port electrification
• Port of Anacortes – $2 million for port electrification
• Puyallup Tribe port properties – $20 million for port electrification
• Tacoma Rail – $5 million to fund the replacement of two diesel-electric switcher locomotives with zero emission battery-electric switcher locomotives and to install on-site charging equipment 

“This investment will help the Port of Everett green the region’s supply chain, increasing our global competitiveness while sustaining jobs and the environment,” said Washington State Representative Julio Cortes.

For the past several months Gov. Inslee has been touring Washington state highlighting benefits of the CCA. One such need, Inslee told the Lynnwood Times, was monies for electric ferry boats to relieve disruptions in operations and to meet capacity.

“We need new ferry boats desperately and the CCA is where the money is coming from to build the next five ferry boats,” Governor Inslee told the Lynnwood Times during his visit to Marysville for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Echandia in July. “So, if you want ferry boats, we have to have the Climate Commitment Act, it is the only revenue source we have.”

Initiative 2117 (I-2117), an initiative that if passed by voters this November,  would prohibit carbon tax credit trading, also known as “cap-and-invest,” which would gut Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, funds that are paying for projects like those at the Port of Everett.

The CCA sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions and requires the state’s largest emitters to purchase allowances for “planet-warming pollution.” The law requires the Legislature to invest revenue from this cap-and-invest program to projects that reduce greenhouse emissions.

Critics of the CCA have pointed to its contribution for Washington state having one of the highest gas prices in the United States, calling it a defacto “gas tax.”

“As soon as 2023 arrived, and the CCA took full effect, fuel prices immediately began to rise in our state,” Washington State Senate Minority, Senator John Braun wrote in a commentary to the Lynnwood Times. “By that summer, Washington had the highest gasoline prices in the nation. They topped even California, the other cap-and-tax state in the nation, and Hawaii, which has to have all its fuel shipped in at additional cost.”

He further argued that the CCA disproportionately impacts low-income residents.

“Costs that hit lower-income people harder than those with higher incomes are called regressive,” wrote Braun. “A wealthy person may not even notice that 9 or 10 cents tax on each dollar spent, but a poor person does.”

Brian Heywood, founder of the Let’s Go Washington PAC and who is advocating for the I-2117, shared Brauns sentiments with political commentator Brandi Kruse on her podcast, unDivided.

“People are just mad…. not because they don’t like it; it’s because they are making a choice between groceries and gas,” Brian Heywood said.

“First of all you see it in the gas prices [at the pump]… Then if you go and buy groceries, every single thing in a grocery store came on a truck that had to pay this hidden gas tax. Now your eggs, your milk and your cheese prices are up. And then we have the hidden increase in your home heating costs with PSE,” Heywood added.

There has not been an Initiative to the Legislature on the ballot in Washington since 2019, when voters approved Initiative 976, which limited vehicle registration renewal fees to $30. The Washington Supreme Court blocked that initiative from taking effect.

On August 9, the Washington State Supreme Court justices unanimously rejected two cases by progressive groups—Defend Washington and Washington Conservation Action Education Fund—against Secretary of State Steve Hobbs that aimed to invalidate I-2117 along with the other citizen-initiated initiatives of which three were passed by the legislature into law earlier this year in March, and four to be voted on by residents this November.

However, criticism surrounded the Attorney General’s Office in the handling of the case.

Heywood and his team were blindsided by the case the day it was being heard, August 9, which the Secretary of State and Attorney General offices knew about for months as they defended these in lower courts, but did not inform the Let’s Go Washington team, as they had standing.

“I can assure you that if any other attorney general had been in that spot, and absolutely and positively wanted to make sure the will of the Washington voter was properly defended, they would have got Let’s Go Washington involved in it,” Washington Gun Law President, William Kirk stated on his podcast of the incident.

Kirk’s sentiment was echoed by Jackson Maynard, executive director and counsel of the Citizen Action Defense Fund, in a statement to The Center Square.

“In 22 years of legal practice, I’ve never seen a case progress this far without all necessary parties being before the court or at least being given the courtesy of a phone call about litigation as important as this,” he told The Center Square. “Participation in the initiative process is a fundamental right, and the idea that the state Supreme Court with the stroke of a pen could’ve eliminated the voices of the millions who signed the petitions in this case without even hearing from all impacted parties is really troubling.”

Brionna Aho, Communications Director at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, shared with the Lynnwood Times that “generally, the party bringing the motion [Defend Washington] has the responsibility to notify the relevant parties [Let’s Go Washington].”

“Because Defend Washington failed to provide reasonable notice of its requests to affected persons (such as the sponsor of the initiatives), this Court should decline to consider Defend Washington’s emergency motion,” she wrote.

Aho, in her statement to the Lynnwood Times, also stated that the AG’s Office successfully argued that the signatures are valid, and that I-2117 and the other three initiatives should remain on the ballot for the November General Election.

Heywood, given the history of the state Supreme Court’s overturning of I-976, is dubious that this was a simple “oversight.”

“I am concerned however, that to my knowledge, neither he [Secretary Hobbs] nor anyone from his staff ever reached out to me or anyone at Let’s Go Washington… Why this huuuuge oversight?”

Author: Mario Lotmore