Category: Washington State News

Source: Washington State News 2

Project will resurface worn center and right lanes

SPOKANE – Work to repair worn concrete on the center and right lanes of eastbound Interstate 90 just west of Spokane will start Sunday, Aug. 2. This overnight work could create delays through Aug. 21 for people traveling between the US 2 and US 195 interchanges.

Travelers in the area will encounter lane reductions and ramp closures nightly from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sundays through Friday mornings. All lanes will be open during daytime hours.

During the three-week project, Washington State Department of Transportation crews will remove the old driving surface, then replace it to smooth out ruts.

Lane restriction and detour information

During the overnight working hours, crews will reduce eastbound I-90 to a single left lane on Sunset Hill.

Additionally, the US 2 ramp to eastbound I-90 will close to traffic during working hours. Drivers will need to use a signed detour via the westbound US 2 ramp to westbound I-90, exiting at the Geiger/Grove interchange 1 mile to the west and then reentering eastbound I-90.

What work will be done?

Crews will set up traffic control in the work zone nightly. Once set, maintenance crews will remove the existing road surface in spots that are rough using high pressure water, which also will clean the rebar underneath. Crews will then pour new concrete to create a smooth driving surface.

The last time crews resurfaced this section of I-90 was from 2011 to 2012.

Real-time travel information is available from the WSDOT mobile app and the WSDOT Travel Center Map.

Source: Washington State News

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown today took another important step in his effort to defend consumers from fast-rising utility bills, arguing against Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) steep price hikes for gas and electric service.

“We need to fight to keep Washington affordable for everyone,” said Brown. “PSE should only raise prices on consumers when necessary and reasonable, and we do not think that is the case here.”

In expert testimony filed Tuesday with the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), the AG’s office is challenging the energy utility PSE’s proposal to increase customer electric rates by 29% and gas rates by 20% over the next three years. The AG’s office argues that these increases are excessive and unreasonable. 

The AG’s office offers a different plan. By lowering PSE’s return on equity to the actual cost of capital, asking shareholders to pay their fair share of expenses such as insurance, investor relations, and executive compensation costs, and by demanding PSE more accurately estimate future costs, the AG’s office believes PSE could save customers as much as $695 million in 2027 alone. The AG’s office will continue to identify more potential savings as the case progresses. 

The AG’s Public Counsel Unit keeps private utilities accountable to ratepayers by opposing unfair or unreasonable price increases. This role is more important than ever as many private utilities are dramatically raising prices, and the cost of living is increasing. This year, the Public Counsel Unit has also advocated for lower prices in Southwest Washington and Eastern Washington. 

PSE is a private, for-profit utility company which the state has licensed to operate as a monopoly in western Washington, serving 1.2 million electric and 900,000 natural gas customers. Private utilities in Washington don’t get to unilaterally set customer rates. Instead, they propose rates which are then approved or denied by the UTC. Under state law, utility companies may only impose rate increases on customers that are “fair, just, and reasonable” and are in the public interest. 

If the proposed rate increases are approved by the UTC, PSE would increase electric rates by 17% in January 2027 or $28.31 per month for the average household. Gas rates would increase by 13% in January 2027 or $13.63 per month for the average household. 

Rates would continue to increase in 2028 and 2029. By 2029, the average customer’s electric bill would have increased $50.58 a month or $606.96 per year, and their gas bill would have increased by $21.96 a month or $263.52 per year, compared with current rates. Under PSE’s proposal, they would collect an extra $3.396 billion from customers over the next three years. These increases are on top of the massive rate increases PSE customers have already endured: between 2020 and 2025, PSE’s electric rates nearly doubled. 

In 2025, PSE paid $62.9 million in dividends to their shareholders. In 2024, it was an eye-popping $175.9 million in dividends. On average, 12% of customers’ electric bills and 11% of their gas bills go to paying investors rather than for services. 

PSE also spends customer money on projects that are not related to providing services. The AG’s office argues that spending on these items should come out of the pot of money PSE uses to pay shareholder dividends, rather than money customers pay as part of their electric and gas rates:

• Increasing the pay of executives. PSE’s CEO received total compensation of $6.4 million in 2024. PSE’s CEO was paid 55 times more than the median PSE employee last year.
• Marketing. PSE spends customer money to advertise itself to its own customers, who have no choice about their electric or gas service.
• Lobbying elected officials. PSE also spends customer money to lobby Washington state government. 

PSE’s requested rate increase would guarantee PSE a profit margin of 10.8% over the next four years. Their current profit margin is 9.9%. The AG’s office instead urges the UTC to support a lower profit margin of 8.17%. 

In addition to its proposed rate increase, PSE also wants to shift all the risk for power market volatility onto customers. Currently, when power is more expensive than PSE expects, customers and the company share that unexpected cost. Under PSE’s proposal, customers would instead foot the bill for 100% of higher power costs from events like the Iran War. These costs would be in addition to the rate increases over the next three years. PSE has not provided any estimates of how much this change would cost customers.

The AG’s office will continue to take a firm line with Washington utility companies who overcharge their customers. Attorney General Brown says that energy costs are a burden for many households, particularly on top of other increases in the cost of living. More than 30% of people living in PSE’s service area are housing-burdened, meaning that they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Research shows that high utility prices are correlated with more evictions. Brown says that no one should lose their home because a utility company unnecessarily raised the cost of electricity. 

The UTC will host an in-person comment hearing at 6:00 p.m. on September 29, and a virtual public comment hearing at 6:00 p.m. on October 7. The public may participate in the virtual hearing through Zoom or phone.

Comments may also be sent to the Commission by email at comment@utc.wa.gov, by mail at P.O. Box 47250, Olympia, WA 98504, or by phone at 888-333-9882 (toll-free).

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News

A U.S. District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order on Monday that blocks the U.S. Department of Education from unlawfully terminating congressionally approved school-based mental health grants. 

The order in the case led by Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of 14 state attorneys general comes just days before the Department of Education would have begun terminating up to nine grants providing critical mental health services to Washington public school students at the end of July. Terminating the grants would have resulted in the projected loss of $20 million in mental health services to Washington elementary and secondary school students over the remaining life of the grants.

“We have now beaten back multiple attempts by this administration to illegally gut funding for mental health in our schools,” Brown said. “This program was a promise to America’s youth that their needs would be supported, and we won’t let the President break it.”

In the wake of devastating school shootings, members of Congress from both parties came together to appropriate $1 billion to permanently bring 14,000 mental health professionals into U.S. schools most in need, especially in low-income and rural communities. The programs have been an incredible success. In their first year, the programs provided mental and behavioral health services to nearly 775,000 elementary and secondary students nationwide. Sampled projects showed real results: a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement.

But over the past 15 months, the Department of Education has interfered with these goals by adding funding uncertainty and roadblocks that make it harder for grantees in Washington and the other coalition states to plan and perform their grant projects. In April 2025, the department notified these grantees that their grants would be discontinued for allegedly conflicting with the Trump administration’s new priorities. The department later revealed the grants had been targeted for their perceived support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Washington has gone to court repeatedly to fight for these mental health grants and has won six favorable rulings against the administration so far. In July 2025, Brown led the coalition in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against the department over the discontinuation of the grants. In December 2025, the coalition secured an order declaring the department’s discontinuations were unlawful and requiring it to make new continuation decisions. The court also issued a permanent injunction that prohibited the department from implementing the discontinuations “through any means.”

The department claimed it planned to review the grants at the six-month mark and then make additional funding determinations. But instead, the department targeted the grants protected by the original injunction and announced they plan to terminate the grants altogether. 

Brown and the coalition filed a second lawsuit in July 2026 to obtain a new injunction that prevents these terminations that were scheduled to begin on July 31 from taking place.  

The temporary restraining order prevents the department from terminating the mental health grants using new priorities or without providing statutory procedural protections such as first working with the grantee to resolve any issues. The order will expire on August 24. In the meantime, the court is expected to schedule a hearing on a preliminary injunction, which would provide longer-term protection for grantees if ordered. 

Brown is joined in this suit by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

Read the order.

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has agreed to an assurance of discontinuance with the homebuilder Hayden Homes and its nonprofit partner First Story, requiring them to stop adding illegal private transfer fees to properties and to pay back Washington homeowners who paid the fees. This settlement concludes the office’s investigation and avoids litigation.

“Under Washington law, no one can force you to pay fees to a third party when you sell your home,” said Attorney General Nick Brown. “Our agreement makes the affected homeowners whole and stops these suspect business practices.”

Between 2006 and 2025, Hayden Homes put covenants on 7,627 Washington properties it sold to homebuyers. These covenants required every homeowner to pay 0.125% of the property’s sales price to First Story every time a homeowner sold one of these properties. First Story is a nonprofit lending corporation founded by the CEO of Hayden Homes. More than 2,000 Washingtonians paid these fees upon selling their home. Some of the homeowners filed complaints with the AG’s office, prompting this investigation. 

Under the law, “charitable covenants” that require home sellers to donate to a nonprofit organization are only legal if the donations are used to directly benefit the property being sold. One of First Story’s primary purposes is to lend money to people purchasing Hayden Homes, a program unrelated to the property of the homeowner paying the fee. First Story used the money to make donations to other nonprofits that homeowners did not select and often did not know about. Because First Story is so closely associated with Hayden Homes, the AG’s office alleged that the payments essentially allowed Hayden Homes to take money from their client homebuyers and use it to burnish Hayden Homes’ public image. 

Specifically, the AG’s office contended that the covenants requiring homeowners to pay a fee to First Story violated Washington’s Private Transfer Fee Obligation Act and the Consumer Protection Act. The AG’s office also contended that within the covenants attached to each property, Hayden Homes and First Story included threats to take legal action against homeowners if they refused to pay the fee, a deceptive practice which violated the Consumer Protection Act, since the fees were legally unenforceable.

The agreement between the AG’s office and Hayden Homes requires Hayden Homes to pay $1.6 million in restitution to homeowners who paid the fee, which includes full refunds plus interest. Hayden Homes must also cease the use of these covenants and remove existing covenants from all other properties they have built or sold in Washington.

Read the agreement.

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News

Attorney General Nick Brown led a coalition of 11 attorneys general in an amicus brief filed today before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the federal government must make informed decisions about how to store, treat, and dispose of hazardous waste. 

The case, Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, concerns whether the federal government needs to conduct environmental impact reviews of major projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before it seeks a permit to dispose of hazardous waste. The brief argues that NEPA reviews in conjunction with hazardous waste disposal are valuable for Washington. Specifically, these reviews have informed the state’s own permitting decisions at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, reducing environmental impacts from Hanford’s cleanup. 

“Hazardous waste sites like Hanford remind us of the federal government’s past failures and ongoing responsibility in addressing toxic threats to our communities,” said Brown. “We must maintain the safeguards that give Washingtonians a voice in federal decisions that impact us and our environment.”

In this case, the court was asked to decide whether the Air Force can destroy munitions on a beach in Guam without doing an environmental impact review under NEPA. The federal government argues that it does not need to do a NEPA review because it already completed a permit application under a different federal law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). However, the information provided in permit application is different from a NEPA review, occurs at a different stage in the process, and considers a narrower set of environmental concerns. 

NEPA requires the federal government to analyze environmental impacts before it takes an action requiring a permit to dispose of hazardous waste, while the RCRA permit process requires states to evaluate only the government’s chosen waste disposal action. NEPA also requires public input before the federal government’s decision is made, ensuring that communities know about the action the government is planning and have input into that decision. NEPA analysis requires the federal government to study alternatives that could be less harmful to the environment, whereas RCRA permits do not require studying alternatives. 

The Hanford cleanup is one example of how NEPA reviews have helped Washingtonians. For decades governors, lawmakers, attorneys general, Tribes, and the Tri-Cities community have worked to hold the federal government accountable for the Hanford cleanup. The NEPA process gives these parties information they can use to advocate and influence decisions. In one case, this analysis influenced where the federal government sited a landfill on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, reducing environmental impacts. This outcome was only possible because of information generated through NEPA reviews. Without NEPA reviews, states and communities would be left in the dark about crucial decisions that impact them.

The brief was joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, and Oregon.

Read the brief. 

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News

A proposed rule from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to unlawfully fast-track more natural gas pipeline projects would likely raise consumers’ energy bills, increase air pollution, and worsen climate change, Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of attorneys general argued today in comments submitted to the commission.
 
The multistate coalition submitted comments regarding the commission’s proposed rule, issued on May 21, to expand the category of pipeline projects that are automatically authorized under its “blanket certificate.” That change would allow more projects to bypass review required under the Natural Gas Act to ensure that the projects serve the needs and interest of the public.
 
The commission “must ensure that new pipelines do not unfairly burden everyday consumers, the air we breathe, and the water we use,” the AGs wrote in the comment letter.
 
“This illegal rule would leave Washingtonians stuck with higher bills and more pollution,” Brown said. “It’s vital that we push back against the federal government’s attempt to reduce oversight of pipeline projects at the expense of consumers and our environment.”
 
In Washington, the pipeline company Williams is planning multiple expansions for the Northwest Pipeline, which runs along the I-5 corridor and the Columbia River. The projects appear largely intended to serve data centers. The company has not yet sought FERC approval for the projects. If FERC’s proposed rule goes into effect, all or part of these projects could move forward with minimal public or regulatory scrutiny.
 
FERC is proposing to substantially increase the dollar threshold for projects that qualify for automatic approval, which allows companies to proceed without any advance notice to the public or FERC. Under current regulations, projects that cost less than $14.5 million qualify for this automatic approval. FERC proposes to more than double that threshold to $30 million.
 
Additionally, FERC proposes to lift the threshold to $86 million, up from $41.1 million currently, for so-called “prior notice” projects. Under that category, companies must provide 60 days’ notice and if no objections are made, the companies can proceed. The commission would also adjust those thresholds annually based on an industry index of construction costs rather than its current inflation-based measure. FERC is also proposing to give “prior notice” approval for all compressor expansion projects that occur within the fenceline of an existing station, no matter the cost.
 
The coalition argues that FERC’s proposed rule would violate the Natural Gas Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
 
Brown and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell are co-leading the comment submission. Joining them are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
 
Read the comment letter here. 

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are imposing unlawful conditions on federal funds to coerce states into complying with the federal administration’s political agenda, Attorney General Nick Brown and a multistate coalition argued in a lawsuit filed today.

The coalition’s lawsuit challenges decisions by FEMA and DHS to impose unlawful conditions on billions of dollars in federal funds that Congress appropriated for states to prepare for and respond to emergencies and natural disasters, including acts of terrorism. The conditions challenged in the lawsuit would require the states to change the way they conduct elections, including by transmitting lists of all registered voters to DHS, and to assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. They would also permit DHS to terminate any federal grant at any time and for any reason. 

“Funding to protect Washingtonians from terrorism and catastrophe should not be subject to politics,” Brown said. “It’s the third time we’ve been forced to take these agencies to court to follow the law as Congress intended.”

Brown joined two similar and successful lawsuits in 2025, challenging DHS’s efforts to condition billions in federal emergency funding on states’ agreement to enforce federal immigration law and DHS’s subsequent attempt to unlawfully reallocate federal homeland security funding away from jurisdictions viewed as not supportive of the President’s political agenda. 

Now, DHS and FEMA have established grant conditions for 2026 funding that again attempt to unlawfully coerce the states into complying with the administration’s policy priorities. The conditions affect billions of dollars in funding, including over a billion dollars in Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding that states use to support security measures and protect residents from terrorism, cyberattacks, and more. In recent years, Washington has received about $20 million in HSGP funding each year. 

First, DHS and FEMA have again threatened to impose the same immigration conditions that they attempted to impose in 2025 on all federal grant programs, conditions that were found to be unlawful and were blocked by a district judge last year. 

Second, DHS and FEMA threaten to withhold 20% of each state’s counterterrorism funding if states do not change state election law to conform to the administration’s unlawful effort to control voting. The attorneys general assert that these requirements would force states to abandon years of work and millions of dollars of investments into secure elections systems, all to obtain unrelated funding that Congress earmarked for the prevention of terrorist attacks. 

Specifically, the challenged funding conditions include requiring states to conduct a mandatory 5% manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters and ballots using a methodology DHS has not disclosed, and use DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to verify the citizenship of every election worker and every registered voter in states’ voter databases. If states do not comply, DHS and FEMA will withhold at least 20% of each state’s HSGP funding. 

Finally, the challenged funding conditions unlawfully claim unfettered power to terminate these grants on a whim. The agencies are attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. This constant threat of termination undermines the processes these critical programs rely on to be effective. A federal court recently rejected the Trump administration’s attempts to interpret existing regulation in the same way. 

The AGs argue in today’s lawsuit that the grant conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause.

Joining Brown in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ

Source: Washington State News 2

Overnight lane closures, alternating traffic expected through December

MUKILTEO – A new paving project kicking off this month will provide a smoother ride for people traveling on State Route 525 between Paine Field and the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal.

Contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation are scheduled to begin work Tuesday, July 28. Crews will repave the roadway, construct Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks, and make bicycle safety improvements on SR 525 from just north of Paine Field Boulevard to the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal (mileposts 5 to 8). Work is expected to finish by the end of the year, provided weather cooperates.

What to expect

Throughout the project area, travelers can expect single-lane closures, alternating traffic and pedestrian detours using city roads. Work will take place at night to minimize disruptions for ferry travelers.

This section of SR 525 is a popular route to and from the Mukilteo ferry, with about 15,000 travelers using the road daily. This stretch of highway was last resurfaced in 2000, exceeding the typical 15-year asphalt lifespan. This project is part of WSDOT’s ongoing preservation program.

Source: Washington State News 2

19 days of single-lane traffic coming to project area in mid-August

ANACORTES – Preliminary work is now underway on an intersection improvement project to enhance safety along State Route 20 by building a new roundabout at Campbell Lake Road. Most construction for the new roundabout south of Anacortes will be complete in July 2027, weather permitting.

SR 20 travelers also can expect 19 consecutive days of alternating, one-way traffic beginning in mid-August while crews prepare the area near the intersection for the roundabout’s construction.

The Washington State Department of Transportation will oversee the $3 million project funded by the Samish Indian Nation to improve safety along SR 20 and access to and from Campbell Lake Road (milepost 46) and the tribe’s fuel station and convenience store.

Plan ahead for SR 20 delays in 2026

During the first few weeks of the project, work will focus on rechanneling Tibbles Creek, which runs east of the Campbell Lake Road intersection. This work will improve the creek for native fish near Campbell Lake. Crews will set concrete barriers and remove the left turn lane to Campbell Lake Road overnight Wednesday, July 29, making room for this work.

Beginning in mid-August, work will shift to building up and grading the intersection so that the roundabout can be built. This will require crews to reduce SR 20 to a single lane for 19 consecutive days. A temporary traffic signal will alternate traffic through the intersection 24 hours a day.

People traveling along this vital corridor between Skagit County and Whidbey Island should plan for delays, especially during busier travel times. WSDOT will announce dates for the lane reduction when they are finalized.

A pause, then roundabout construction in 2027

Once the area is brought up to grade for the new roundabout, contractor crews will pause for about six months over the winter to allow the area to settle. SR 20 will return to its normal two-lane configuration during the settlement period, but travelers should note that the grade of the curve near Campbell Lake Road will be flatter and are advised to follow posted speed limits.

In spring or summer of 2027, roundabout construction will resume. SR 20 again will be reduced to a single lane for up to 54 days around the clock. Campbell Lake Road also will be reduced to a single lane for up to 40 days. Temporary signals will alternate traffic through the intersection around the clock, allowing crews from Faber Construction Corporation to build the new roundabout in three phases.

After the roundabout is built, crews will return about three weeks later to paint the lanes and finish construction.

Dates for work in 2027 will be announced once they are scheduled, but the project is expected to finish next summer.

Improving safety and access

About 19,000 vehicles per day traveled this section of SR 20 in 2025, including people heading to Deception Pass Park or commuting to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. WSDOT reduced the permanent speed limit to 45 mph along SR 20 between Sharpes Corner and Pass Lake earlier this summer.

The new roundabout will further improve safety and provide better access for vehicles using Campbell Lake Road. Roundabouts are designed to improve intersection safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Federal Highway Administration found that roundabouts reduce injury collisions by 75% compared with intersections using traffic signals or stop signs. Fatality collisions also reduced by 90%. 19 days of single-lane traffic are coming to project area in mid-August.

75% compared with intersections using traffic signals or stop signs. Fatality collisions also reduced by 90%.

Source: Washington State News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unlawfully adopted a rule weakening regulations designed to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in commercial equipment, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions and harm Washington’s efforts to address climate change, and a multistate coalition co-led by Attorney General Nick Brown is challenging EPA’s rule in a lawsuit filed today.
 
HFCs are chemicals used for refrigeration and cooling that are up to 10,000 times more potent than the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide, and they are among the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions both in the United States and around the world. The rule rolls back some of the existing deadlines for industry to move from using HFCs to refrigerants with less Global Warming Potential (GWP).
 
This undermines EPA’s current regulations under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act), which are designed to largely phase out HFCs by 2036. In the petition filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the coalition asked the court to review EPA’s new rule. 
 
“Washington has long recognized the unique threats polluting greenhouse gases pose to the health of our people and our environment, and our state has been at the forefront of phasing out harmful hydrofluorocarbons,” Attorney General Nick Brown said. “That’s why we’re fighting this administration’s reckless and illegal effort to roll back congressionally approved limits on these super pollutants.”
 
Climate change threatens Washington by, among other things, raising sea levels along the state’s more than 3,000 miles of shoreline and causing life-threatening heatwaves. Washington state has committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Legislature has passed several laws to reduce emissions, including from HFCs. The state has phased out some end uses of HFCs and banned the sale of certain products that use heavily polluting refrigerants. The federal rollback does not override Washington’s state laws restricting HFCs, but Washingtonians will still be harmed by EPA permitting higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions from HFCs nationally.
 
Threat to the climate
 
HFCs are widely used in commercial, residential, and mobile cooling systems, such as air conditioning and refrigeration. Once deemed a safer alternative for the environment relative to ozone-depleting substances (chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs), which damage the earth’s ozone layer, HFCs were later discovered to pose a major threat to the climate.
 
Because of their extreme potency, HFCs’ increasing share of emissions, and their relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere, reducing consumption and production of HFCs is particularly important for addressing climate change.
 
In December 2020, President Trump signed the bipartisan AIM Act into law. The AIM Act provides a framework through which the United States will phase out the production and consumption of HFCs by about 85% by 2036. The law requires EPA to help industries transition to a lower supply of these gases over time. The EPA’s new rule delays one of the first steps in this transition from this year to 2032, giving industries a longer, unnecessary, and illegal delay in transitioning to gases with a lower GWP. If allowed to move forward, the rule will increase HFC emissions, accelerating the damage already threatening our planet from climate change. Further, the rule threatens to cause shortages and price spikes in the HFC market that could be passed from retailers to consumers. 
 
In the lawsuit, Brown and the coalition will argue that EPA’s final rule is arbitrary and capricious and violates the AIM Act. 
 
The lawsuit was led by Brown, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. They were joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. The City of New York, New York, also joined.
 
A copy of the petition for review is available here. A copy of the states’ comment letter on the rule is available here. 

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Washington’s Attorney General serves the people and the state of Washington. As the state’s largest law firm, the Attorney General’s Office provides legal representation to every state agency, board, and commission in Washington. Additionally, the Office serves the people directly by enforcing consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental protection laws. The Office also prosecutes elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and handles sexually violent predator cases in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.

Media Contact:

Email: press@atg.wa.gov

Phone: (360) 753-2727

General contacts: Click here

Media Resource Guide & Attorney General’s Office FAQ