SEATTLE — Tens of millions of dollars raised by a landmark Washington state climate bill will go to Native American tribes at risk from climate change and rising sea levels. Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that they will be able to move to higher ground, install solar panels, buy electric vehicles and restore wetlands.
The money — $52 million — comes from the Climate Commitment Act of 2021, which auctions off carbon credits for heavily polluting companies to emit carbon, with the proceeds invested in education, transportation and other programs. Conservative critics who blame it for rising gas prices are trying repeal the law in november.
Nearly every Native American tribe in Washington is receiving money. One of them is the 3,000-member Quinault Indian Nation on the Pacific coast of the Olympic Peninsula, which is getting $13 million to help move its two main villages to higher ground, away from the tsunami zone and ongoing flooding. Part of one of the villages lies below sea level, separated from the roaring ocean by a sea wall, and high tides and storm surges have flooded homes and government buildings.
“The Quinault is a perfect example of two things: people who are threatened by climate change, and people who are willing to do something about it and have confidence in our ability to do something about it,” Inslee said. “So when I think about what you’re doing, it’s very inspiring to me.”
The tribe has been working on the relocation for at least a decade, but so far a patchwork of federal and provincial subsidies has fallen far short of the expected costs.
The money will help fund a new building to house child and elderly care, an emergency shelter, and a new water tank and pump house on high ground to serve residents, government buildings, and a relocated public school. It will also help pay for the development of a master plan and architectural drawings for a new museum and cultural center.
“We are incredibly grateful for this funding, which will allow us to take a major step forward in our mission to get our people, our homes and our critical infrastructure out of harm’s way,” Quinault President Guy Capoeman said in a statement released by the Department of Commerce. “It will allow us to serve our elders and children, our most precious resource, in a safe place, while also providing an emergency shelter and operational base when we need to respond to the inevitable flooding and other natural disasters that are part of life on the coast.”
Inslee, a Democrat who in his third and final term as governor, has often touted the Climate Commitment Act. Washington is working to tie its carbon market to California and Quebec, which also have emissions auctions, but the law faces a challenge at the ballot box in Initiative 2117, backed by conservative hedge fund manager Brian Heywood.
Inslee, along with Capoeman and commercial director Mike Fong, attended a press conference Tuesday in Taholah, one of the villages in Quinault being relocated, to announce the subsidies.
Twenty-eight federally recognized tribes in Washington, plus four others located elsewhere but with land in the state, will each receive at least $750,000.
The Legislature appropriated the $52 million in the 2023-2025 budget, and the Department of Commerce worked with the tribes to determine how they wanted to use the money.
For the Skokomish Tribe north of Olympia, it’s $2 million to weatherize homes. For the Makah Tribe on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, it’s $620,000 to install solar panels and battery backup at a community warming center.
The Lummi Nation in northwestern Washington will use some of its money to restore salmon populations in the Nooksack River, and the Spokane Tribe in eastern Washington wants to improve energy efficiency.
The Shoalwater Bay Tribe, on a small peninsula at the mouth of a Pacific Coast harbor, also received funding for planning a move to higher ground, totaling about $2.8 million.