Washington State Department of Ecology Issued First Carbon Credits for State Cap-and-Invest Program

ACR Oversaw Listing, Verification and Issuance of Credits to A-Gas and Tradewater

LITTLE ROCK, AR—Yesterday, the Washington State Department of Ecology – the regulatory agency responsible for the state’s compliance carbon market – issued the first Ecology Offset Credits to two carbon projects. ACR was the Offset Project Registry for the two projects, issuing the serialized Registry Offset Credits that were converted to Ecology Offset Credits.

Both projects were verified for conformance with the California Air Resources Board Compliance Offset Protocol for Ozone Depleting Substance Projects, which was adopted by the Washington State Department of Ecology to generate the Registry Offset Credits. These credits can be used by covered entities towards meeting their emission reductions obligations in Washington’s program.

A-Gas (A-Gas 2-2023; Project ID: ACR902) and Tradewater (Tradewater ODS51; Project ID: ACR892) are the two carbon project developers who generated the Ecology Offset Credits. Each collected and destroyed refrigerants to permanently prevent the gases from contributing to climate change. Refrigerants and other ozone depleting substances are potent greenhouse gases that can warm the atmosphere 1,000 to 14,000 times more than CO2, which is why Project Drawdown ranked refrigerant management first in its 2017 list of climate solutions.

The Department of Ecology issued 109,180 Ecology Offset Credits to A-Gas and 139,956 Ecology Offset Credits to Tradewater after their project activities were independently verified by an accredited third-party verification & validation body, as overseen by ACR and Ecology.

“ACR is proud to be the first Offset Project Registry to issue carbon credits in support of the State of Washington’s commitment to climate action,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “Carbon markets offer the least-cost pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also supporting other priorities, such as clean air and healthy communities.”

In 2021, the Washington State Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act, which created a market-based program (“Cap-and-Invest”) to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s largest sources of pollution, such as oil refineries. Funds from the program support new investments in climate-resiliency programs, clean transportation, and addressing health disparities across the state.

In addition to the State of Washington, ACR has operated as the leading Offset Project Registry for the California Cap-and-Trade program since 2012, issuing over two-thirds of the credits used by regulated entities towards their emissions reduction requirements. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission’s Recovered Methane Rule also names specific ACR methodologies as recovered methane protocols in that state’s program.