EPA panel hears from governor, lawmakers, Starbucks

The governor, a pair of state lawmakers and even a representative from Starbucks this morning told a government panel that evidence is overwhelming that greenhouse gases already are causing painful climate changes around the globe.

Calling global warming the "paramount environmental challenge of our time," state Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, said years of neglect have put the United States behind the curve in dealing the threats of climate change. Now the country and the world are seeing disruptions to the natural order, such as increasingly acidic marine waters that can corrode mollusk shells.

"The threats are not on the horizon," said fellow state Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Normandy Park. "They're here now."

Rockefeller and others gathered at a public hearing at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on the waterfront today to testify before the Environmental Protection Agency about its plans to list greenhouse gases as dangerous pollutants. That would be the first step to EPA regulating the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

During the all-day hearing, more than 180 people are expected to offer the EPA their thoughts on climate change. It's one of only two hearings taking place across the country. The Obama administration has said it hopes a bill moving through Congress to tackle greenhouse gas emissions will make new EPA regulations unnecessary.

Outside the conference center, hundreds of people — a few in polar-bear and salmon suits — rallied to hear speakers demand that government and individuals work to reduce greenhouse gases.

At the hearing, officials representing King County and Seattle Congressmen Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott spoke about consequences that were both local and global.

Jim Hanna of Starbucks said his organization has already heard from coffee bean growers that soil changes and increased threats from pest infestations are altering the way coffee can be grown. Global warming already poses "a direct business threat to our company."

First up this morning, was Gov. Christine Gregoire, who told a panel of climate experts from the EPA that droughts, catastrophic floods and wildfires have already led her to make more emergency declarations than any of her predecessors. She pointed to those as evidence that climate change was already altering the state's landscape.

She later announced that she'd signed an executive order to reduce Washington's emissions that includes elements of a climate change bill that failed to pass in the recent legislative session. Among other things, it directs the state Department of Ecology to work with large industries to find ways to cut emissions, and calls for plans on how the state's largest counties can reduce the number of vehicles driven.

Outside the hearing, activists who support action to control climate change were donning polar-bear and salmon suits in preparation for a noon rally.

Staff reporter Michelle Ma contributed to this story.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com

Information in this story, originally published May 21, 2009, was corrected on May 22, 2009. Jim Hanna, spokesman for Starbucks, told an Environmental Protection Agency panel in Seattle that the company's coffee growers had reported seeing greater instances of pest infestations — not greater threats from pesticides, as the original version of this story claimed.