The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) might soon be granted the right to sell carbon credits.
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz is advocating for House Bill 1789 – legislation that would enable DNR to collect revenue from the sale of carbon credits, thus potentially saving taxpayers from paying for third-party intermediaries, where climate action is concerned.
Furthermore, Commissioner Franz argues that the bill would level the playing field and allow DNR to compete with privately owned businesses and nonprofits in the carbon offset market.
Washington already began a sort of soft-launch of its “cap-and-invest” program earlier this year, which is rooted in the Climate Commitment Act, signed in 2021.
In part, the law sees to it that heavy emitters can offset their climate impact by investing in forests, which increases the amount of CO2 stored in those forests.
Thus, private forest owners and local governments have started to sell the CO2 storage potential of trees in the form of carbon credits, which is what the Washington DNR is seeking to do, as well.
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