The news release also says that “urgent action to rapidly reduce emissions is essential.
“As 51 University of Washington climate scientists pointed out in an open letter supporting I-732, ‘today’s emissions will still be affecting the climate in a thousand years.’ For future generations the cost of delay is enormous.
“The UUC Climate Action Team’s endorsement of I-732 is in keeping with the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Statement of Conscience on the Threat of Global Warming/Climate Change. It emphasizes our moral obligation to protect future generations from climate change with personal, congregational, and denominational efforts, including to ‘Monitor, propose, and support legislation at the local and state level related to global warming/climate change and opportunities to reduce emissions…’
“I-732’s provisions closely match the climate-action approach called for by The Movement for Black Lives, a group of 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country. The coalition calls for measures ‘Taxing “bads” not “goods”: shift from sales taxes to taxing externalities such as environmental damage, and make this approach income-sensitized to hold low-income people harmless.’
“The Climate Action Team considers I-732 an important first step in reducing CO2 emissions in Washington state. We recognize that many additional steps will be needed to fight climate change. These include programs to assist people most affected by climate change and those least able to afford measures to mitigate and adapt to it — disproportionately low-income families and people of color.”
You can read the entire news release here.