Sen. Cleveland (left), Sen. Ericksen, Governor Inslee, and Rep. Short at the CLEW meeting.
On July 17th Governor Jay Inslee chaired another meeting of the Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup, a committee created by legislation in the 2013 Regular Legislative Session to recommend state actions that will insure greenhouse gas reductions adopted in 2008 are met.
The first half of the meeting was spend interviewing finalists to select a facilitator to lead the Workgroup. In the end the contract went to Triangle Associates.
The Workgroup then moved to the main subject of the meeting, the review of the draft list of greenhouse gas programs outside of WA proposed for detailed evaluation. Here there was detailed discussion as Workgroup members struggled to determine why some programs and solutions were not included in the list. With a grin on his face the Governor made it clear that “at least one member” wanted to look at feed-in tariffs, a program popular in Europe and one that many expect the Governor to push next year in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, the two Republican members, Sen. Doug Ericksen and Rep. Shelly Short, questioned why the State Energy Independence Act would not receive the same cost-benefit and lessons-learned analysis that would be conducted for programs on the list outside Washington State. Sen. Ericksen also questioned why only existing government programs would be studied and not some new innovative models that have been developed but not implemented.
The SAIC researchers agreed to get back on these points.
The Workgroup was then briefed by the Department of Ecology on their update of the Summary of Science on Climate Change required by another state law to be compiled by December. The assessment is also required to recommend any changes to the state greenhouse gas reduction goals. Interestingly, if the economy stays as sluggish as it is now, the State will meet the 2020 goal (reduce emissions to 1990 levels) without any additional changes.
However, the Governor warned that the newest research he is reading is very disturbing, showing that climate change is moving faster than predicted. This is true for much of the research but other scientists are struggling to explain why temperatures have not risen as predicted. Much of the attention is focusing on the oceans.
For additional information on CLEW and the draft list of greenhouse gas projects to be studied, go to http://www.governor.wa.gov/issues/economy/climateWorkgroup/default.aspx .
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