Green choices

Gov. Christine Gregoire's voice needs to be heard on the environmental proposals car pooling to Olympia this legislative session.

As a coalition of green organizations have done in the past, they joined efforts to focus energy on four recommendations. Two are straightforward. One promotes creation of Evergreen Cities via ordinances to preserve, maintain and plant trees. Another seeks to put locally grown produce in Washington schools and on the tables of low-income families.

A third proposal would advance state goals to reduce global-warming pollution. Western states and Canadian provinces met in Portland this week to explore regional action.

The fourth recommendation is a disconcertingly broad plan to build global-warming solutions into city and county comprehensive plans along a model akin to growth-management directives.

This is a lot to work in during a short session. Past successful environmental legislation had definable targets and discernible paths.

The governor needs to respond to how these larger goals match her budget imperatives.