It takes a levy to cut emissions, Nickels says

In announcing his new plan to cut emissions of climate-changing gases in Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels is adding a new twist to the notion that it takes everyone working together to reduce the risk of global warming.

In addition to driving less, saving water and using more fluorescent light bulbs, Nickel's plan hinges on this underlying message: Vote for the city transportation tax this November.

The plan, which Nickels expects to announce publicly today, relies on a $361 million property-tax levy to improve transit, cycling and walking in the city. That's meant to lure people out of their cars, a major source of climate-changing emissions in Seattle.

City officials said linking the levy to the climate plan is not an effort to win votes for the proposal in November. Still, Steve Nicholas, who heads the city's Office of Sustainability and Environment, wasn't shy: "If you care about climate disruption, you should vote for this," he said.

City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck, who has been critical of the levy, didn't object to the mayor linking his nationally publicized climate-change efforts to the measure. But he said he wanted the mayor's global-warming plan to be more aggressive.

For example, Steinbrueck said he wants city officials to confront the way major road projects, like replacing Seattle's viaduct, would encourage dependence on cars.

"We've got to walk the talk, and it's time now," he said.

Information

The mayor's plan was expected

to be posted on the city's Web site

today: www.seattle.gov

With the release of the mayor's plan, Seattle joins a handful of West Coast cities, including San Francisco, Portland and Vancouver, B.C., with detailed plans for meeting or beating the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that sets targets for cutting production of greenhouse gases. The United States hasn't joined the treaty, but 307 U.S. cities have pledged to comply with it in a campaign led by Nickels.

"I think many of the 307 cities are going to be watching what we're doing," Nickels said.

The new plan is a first step, a two-year agenda toward a 2012 goal of cutting emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels — the equivalent of 147,000 cars. The plan relies on a combination of reforms by government and businesses, as well as a public-relations blitz urging people to save gas, electricity, water and natural gas.

Denis Hayes, co-chairman of a commission that earlier this year gave Nickels a blueprint for meeting the Kyoto targets, praised the plan as a measured approach that could help build public support for other future steps.

"It is a first step," said Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle. "We can get there in ways that are reasonably attractive and aren't going to be ticking a lot of people off."

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com