The orange skies above San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere were an ominous sign of the climate crisis's increasing impacts and drive home the urgency of the moment. We need to act quickly to address this massive challenge—and one of the most important ways we can do this is by developing sustainable, zero-emissions public transportation in high-density areas.

Washington State is ignoring one of the best tools in our toolbox to fight climate change: divesting the states more than $125 billion in public employee pension funds from the fossil-fuel industry.

Washington state is diverse – a tech hub, a historical airplane manufacturer, and the heart of much of our country’s agricultural production while remaining one of the most socially liberal states in the country; yet we aren’t leading on addressing climate change. Here’s how we can change that.

Washington’s Blockchain Bill is now state law. Governor Jay Inslee officially signed Substitute Senate Bill 5638 (SB 5638) into law on April 26th enshrining the act “recognizing the validity of distributed ledger technology” into state law.

Governor Jay Inslee should embrace this opportunity for Washington to be at the forefront of the green job’s revolution by including CLT in the state’s green building standards and providing further tax incentives for the use of sustainable building materials created within Washington State.

This morning’s passage of Washington State’s new Blockchain Bill SB 5638 by a unanimous vote indicates legislators are committed to making up for past missteps and supporting blockchain and distributed ledger technology innovation in Washington State.

On January 25th, 2019 legislation was introduced in the Washington State Senate to recognize the validity of Distributed Ledger Technology and provide a legal definition of Blockchain in state law.

In the end, the Beverage Tax is a symptom of the larger systemic inequity that plagues Washington State through our unequal tax system.