Constitutional change for a livable planet: The Washington Green Amendment
How will The Washington Green Amendment make lives better by enhancing environmental protection and environmental justice?
On September 18, The Green Amendment was presented at WSU Richland as part of a six-city Washington State tour. The goal was to inform communities about the benefits of securing the right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment by making it a part of our Washington State Constitution. Currently, three states have a Green Amendment: Montana, Pennsylvania, and New York. Twenty more states are pursuing the addition of Green Amendments to their own states’ constitutions.
Despite Washington’s numerous environmental laws, there are still many people drinking polluted water, breathing contaminated air, living beside contaminated sites, and increasingly impacted by climate change. Unacceptable damage is being done to the environment, causing a decline in cultural values and damage to businesses, and threatening quality of life. The Washington Green Amendment to the state constitution will ensure that when environmental laws fail to protect our environment equitably for all people, there is recourse for people to address the problem and protect people’s lives.
Having equitable rights means that the rights of all Washingtonians are protected. Different communities experience different circumstances, and some have suffered greater pollution and environmental harms. These communities need and deserve greater efforts to ensure their right to enjoy healthy water, air, and soil.
Washington’s government is created by the people of Washington through our state constitution, which stipulates the rules by which the government must operate. Article 1, Section 1 of Washington’s constitution states that our government is obligated to “protect and maintain [the] individual rights” of the people.
The constitution’s Declaration of Rights lists the basic human, civil and political rights the state must protect and maintain, such as the right to free speech and due process. The Washington Green Amendment will add the right to a healthy environment to these basic freedoms.
The Washington Green Amendment creates an obligation on all government officials, agencies, and entities within the state to recognize people’s right to pure water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, and a climate supportive of safe and healthy communities and lives. Government officials therefore must protect the environmental rights of the people because they cannot violate the constitution.
The Washington Green Amendment strengthens environmental justice by clearly stating that the government must protect the environmental rights of all residents of Washington, regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth, or location. For example, if a community of color, an Indigenous community, a rural community, or a low income community is repeatedly impacted by dangerous levels of pollution — whether or not the operations are ‘legal’ — the amendment will allow these historically marginalized communities to seek recourse and a remedy for the harm.
By clearly stating that the government must protect our state’s natural resources for both present and future generations, the Washington Green Amendment requires all government officials to ensure this protection. Because the people of Washington are the legal beneficiaries of our state’s healthy natural resources, the government cannot help industry harm our environment in order to increase profits.
The Washington Green Amendment cannot support lawsuits between private individuals or companies, but if a company or industry is causing environmental harm that is impacting a community’s constitutional rights to clean water and air, or healthy environments are being undermined, the amendment may be a tool to challenge the government action that allowed that harm to occur (such as a permit granting permission to a company to pollute at unconstitutional levels). This can help prevent new environmental harms from coming into play. The amendment can also be used to secure protection from ongoing pollution by identifying the government action that is allowing unconstitutional harm to continue.
The Washington Green Amendment is intended to protect the health and safety of all people and to compel the government to take all the steps necessary to ensure that all businesses — from residential development, to mining, to oil and gas — operate in a way that is protective of our environment and our communities, and to ensure our constitutional environmental rights.
Washington can secure the right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment by securing a Green Amendment. https://wagreenamendment.org