- [WA] Governor's team recommends 47 ways to cut greenhouse gases
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December 5, 2007
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tolls for busy roadways, higher energy-efficiency standards for new buildings and increased recycling and composting are all top picks for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, as selected by the state's Climate Advisory Team.
Now someone just has to get them done.
The team met in Seattle for the last time Wednesday before lawmakers convene in Olympia next month. The group, which was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire and has been meeting since March, tried to come up with specific recommendations for the Legislature but was unable to whittle down its choices.
Instead, members are working to complete a report due in January that will include 47 recommended actions, giving priority to about a dozen.
Even without a clear mandate for lawmakers, the effort is being called a success.
"I'm really proud of this group and happy with what we've come up with," said Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology and co-chairman of the team.
"It's successful in that the best ideas have really risen to the top and gained widespread endorsement," said K.C. Golden, policy director for the non-profit Climate Solutions and one of the 27 team members.
Part of the motivation for the Climate Advisory Team was to fill the void left by a lack of climate action on the federal level -- but Wednesday, national leaders made strides to catch up.
A Senate committee approved legislation that calls for the U.S. to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions and create a national "cap-and-trade" system whereby companies would have pollution allowances that they could sell if they went below the emission limits, or buy if they found they could not meet requirements.
Washington also is part of the Western Climate Initiative -- a state-led effort to reduce greenhouse gases -- that by August is trying to devise a regional strategy for cap-and-trade. Six states and two Canadian provinces are part of the initiative.
Recommendations from the Climate Advisory Team will help the state meet current and future greenhouse-gas reduction goals.
"I'm very encouraged by what I see here," said Dennis McLerran, director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and a team member. "I want to make sure there's a sense of urgency around it. Now is the time to act."
Work is under way to implement many of the recommended strategies. There are plans during the next year to flesh out the costs and policies needed to take further action.
Manning warned that it would be 2009 until the "bigger steps" are taken to reduce emissions. In part, he doesn't want the state to get ahead of the multistate effort.
And he is pushing for new climate laws come January, including a program that will require bigger emitters of greenhouse gases -- industry and power plants among them -- to report their emissions. The state also is joining Seattle and King County in trying to figure out how to include greenhouse gases when tabulating the environmental harm caused by large road and building construction projects.
A coalition of environmentalists has its own list of climate-change measures being pushed in Olympia. They include setting timelines for meeting greenhouse-gas reductions and the creation of jobs tied to clean-energy production.
"As a state, as a country, as a species we are very, very late in addressing this problem (of global warming)," Golden said. Despite that, "I'm still very optimistic that real solutions are in our grasp."
CUTTING CARBON DIOXIDE
The governor's Climate Advisory Team came up with 47 strategies for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Here are some of the most popular ones:
- Charging tolls on busy roads, increasing parking costs and offering auto insurance rates tied to miles driven.
- Investing in research and technology for turning wood into vehicle fuel.
- Requiring that vehicle fuel sold in state releases lower levels of carbon dioxide.
- Making railroad transportation more efficient.
