The economic shock from the COVID-19 shutdown may be cultivating an newfound appreciation for environmental policies that are efficient and effective. Individuals, businesses, and government don’t have money to burn, so everyone is taking a closer look at the bottom line. This is good news for taxpayers and the environment.

A significant example is the Governor’s veto last Friday of HB 2248, which would have provided tens of millions of dollars for extremely expensive “community solar” projects that do little for the environment.

In the video below, I explain a bit about why this veto is a hopeful sign. For more information about how wasteful rooftop solar is, we ran the numbers in December. For an example of an alternative that yields far more CO2-reduction per dollar, I highlighted this project last November, which reduces as much CO2 as Sound Transit 3 will, but for only $2.3 million.