On June 11, King County Executive Dow Constantine dropped the 735-page 2025 King County Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) onto the desks of the King County Council members. SCAP shows that wasting taxpayer dollars on useless plans filled with what our neighbors to the north call “bafflegab” is alive and well.
SCAP proposes myriad actions for the County to “reduce GHG emissions, center frontline communities, and prepare for climate change impacts” based on nonsensical claims about rising sea levels and rising temperatures, neither of which is supported by actual data. It is heavy on buzz phrases like “climate equity,” but short on actual analysis. Most importantly, SCAP doesn’t include any estimates of what the County intends to spend, nor any values for the purported benefits that supposedly will be realized.
SCAP presents nine vacuous goals, called “flagships,” including “Fresh, Local Food for Everyone” and “Connected and Accessible Transportation.” It proposes to “Design Out Waste” that results from our “throwaway economy.” These goals will, it is claimed, also expand economic opportunity by creating more “living wage” jobs and a “green workforce.” And, of course, it promises to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero by 2050.
According to data reported by the County, in 2019, countywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions totaled 27.1 million metric tons. That may sound like a lot, but it represents less than one-half of one percent of U.S. emissions in 2023, which totaled over 5.7 billion metric tons, and less than one-tenth of one percent of global emissions, which totaled over 35 billion metric tons. Put another way, the County’s total GHG emissions in 2019 were equivalent to fewer than seven hours of world GHG emissions. Thus, none of the actions taken by the County to reduce GHG emissions will have any measurable impact on the climate.
SCAP also makes histrionic claims that have no factual basis. For example, SCAP claims that sea levels will increase by 10 inches by 2050 and up to five feet by 2100. Yet, data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over the last 125 years show that sea level in Seattle has increased at an average rate of just two millimeters per year, with no recent changes in that rate of change. Two millimeters per year translates to one inch every dozen years. So, by 2050, levels will rise by perhaps two inches, and just six inches by the end of the century.
SCAP also links individual events, such as the record-breaking heat in 2021 and the 2022 Bolt Creek wildfire. Linking specific weather events — whether a heatwave, cold snap, or storm — is based on what is called “climate attribution science,” but in reality is statistical sleight-of-hand. As for the Bolt Creek Fire, fire officials determined that it was caused by human carelessness.
By all means, help people stay cool in summer. But SCAP calls for installing more heat pumps, which operate on increasingly expensive electricity. And if Washington State has its way, shutting down all fossil-fuel generators and relying solely on wind, solar, and battery storage to provide electricity, it will become much more expensive.
Ultimately, SCAP follows a tried-and-true format. First, scare everyone with predictions of impending doom. Second, offer a detailed plan to avert that doom that involves increasing government reach over everyone’s lives and higher spending. Third, ignore all efforts to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of that detailed plan, or even present the expected costs.
Like California’s ill-fated “bullet train to nowhere,” expect SCAP to deliver nothing other than a waste of paper.