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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Western Climate Initiative: WA’s Chance to "Get it Right"

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008   

Lacey, WA – The State of Washington chairs a panel made up of seven states and four Canadian provinces, with a big goal: to cut global warming pollution in the West. But is the goal big enough? It's a topic that will surely come up at a public meeting today in Lacey.

The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) wants to reduce carbon emissions by industry 15 percent by the year 2020. But it is proposing that two-thirds of those reductions could come from "offsets"--the ability of a company to purchase carbon credits instead of actually reducing its emissions.

K.C. Golden, policy director for the clean energy advocacy group Climate Solutions, says allowing such a high level of offsets lets power plants and factories sidestep the problem.

"That is missing the boat. Polluters want the flexibility–-instead of reducing emissions, investing in new technology, and reducing our fossil fuel dependence–-to hide the pea under a different shell. That's just going to defeat the purpose of the program."

Proponents of offsets like them because they do allow companies some flexibility, as well as provide a financial incentive for companies to work on reducing their emissions.

Golden believes the WCI plan has promise, but says states that depend on coal power, such as Utah, are pushing for the higher offset levels.

"The cap-and-trade system that they're developing can really work, but not if we let folks play shell games and just hide the emissions somewhere else. We really have to reduce those emissions in the cap sectors, the energy sectors."

Golden considers the WCI effort a good chance for the West to steer its own energy future, rather than wait for a federal plan that Westerners might not like. He advises people who are concerned about offsets to speak up now, because the final plan will be released on Sept. 22. Today's public meeting will be held at the Washington Department of Ecology headquarters in Lacey at 2:00 p.m.

The draft proposal and information about the WCI, including instructions for public comments, are available at www.westernclimateinitiative.org. Climate Solutions' Web site is www.climatesolutions.org.




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