Inslee pushes for outside advice on how Wash. can reduce emissions

Source: E&E • Posted: Friday, March 8, 2013

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) is pushing a plan to hire an outside group to advise the state on how it can reduce its carbon emissions while still increasing its energy output.

“This is not some kind of hypothetical, far-off-in-the-distant-future thing that seven generations from now they can worry about,” Inslee told the state House Environment Committee. “It’s right here, and it’s right now.”

The state Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee passed the governor’s climate change bill last month after statements about climate change’s impact on Washington and the advantages of clean energy sources were taken out of the document. Last week, the bill passed the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The altered bill also mandated that the study should include an analysis of the costs and benefits of the state’s current attempts to reduce emissions, and it limited the governor’s ability to act on the recommendations.

A spokeswoman for Inslee said the governor did not support the changes (Jonathan Kaminsky, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, March. 5).