SEATTLE — Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire sidestepped her Legislature's refusal to adopt a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases, signing an executive order Thursday to achieve similar reductions by ratcheting back coal-fired electricity and automobile emissions.
"I wanted cap-and-trade. I didn't get it," said Gregoire, a Democrat, whose order directs government agencies to expand public transit and other programs to meet auto emissions goals, and to reach agreement with the state's only coal-fired power plant to reduce its carbon output at least 50% by 2025.
The order also calls for development of an even wider-ranging set of emission reduction strategies to achieve across-the-board greenhouse gas targets by 2020, and sets the stage for working with California and Oregon to implement a West Coast "electric highway" accessible to electric and alternative-fuel vehicles.
The new order is the latest in a series of efforts by governors to advance climate change goals while awaiting comprehensive national legislation in Washington.
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 33 to 25 on Thursday to approve a bill:energy-and-commerce-committee-passes-comprehensive-clean-energy- legislation&catid=122:media-advisories&Itemid=55 to impose the nation's first limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, aiming to cut emissions linked to global warming 83% by 2050. The bill must now go to several other committees and then the House floor. Democrats have said they will use the bill as a starting point for introducing a climate bill in the Senate.
The Washington Legislature in March refused to impose a mandatory limit on carbon emissions, throwing a wrench into the state's participation in the Western Climate Initiative -- established in 2007 among seven states and four Canadian provinces.
Governors in several regions are trying to set up a system of marketable carbon reduction credits that can be traded to industries unable to meet mandatory emissions limits -- the so-called cap-and-trade concept.
Gregoire's order is designed to realize similar carbon reductions by negotiation, incentive and administrative regulation. "This readies Washington state to implement a federal cap-and-trade program immediately," she said.
