WA Supreme Court upholds state climate law's farm fuel exemption rules
The state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld Washington’s hotly contested regulations for how farmers and haulers of agricultural goods receive the exemption on fuel purchases promised under the state’s cap-and-trade system.
The court said the Department of Ecology didn’t exceed its authority with the rule it adopted. Nor did the agency’s rejection of a petition from the Washington Farm Bureau and Washington Trucking Associations to scrap it and start over “constitute arbitrary and capricious action.”
“At its heart, the (Washington Farm Bureau) challenge seems to be a disagreement with the legislature, not with Ecology,” Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis wrote in the ruling, which upholds a lower court’s dismissal of the two groups’ petition.
In a statement, the Department of Ecology said it was pleased the court “recognized our efforts to implement the law and deliver these exemptions.”
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/06/25/wa-supreme-court-upholds-state-climate-laws-farm-fuel-exemption-rules/