Gregoire signs order to reduce greenhouse gases

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed an executive order Thursday aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The order includes aspects of a climate change bill that the governor had aggressively pushed but 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 to be drawn up on how the state's largest counties can reduce the number of vehicles driven.

It also requires the state to consider standards for cleaner fuels, much in the way that California has done. Last month, air regulators in that state adopted a first-in-the-nation mandate requiring low-carbon fuels.

During the legislative session that ended in late April, Gregoire pushed for a cap-and-trade program to limit how much global warming pollution large industries could emit. It also would have set up a regional market system for polluters to buy or sell credits if they pollute more or less than their limit.

"I wanted cap and trade. I didn't get it," Gregoire told a Thursday news conference. "This is the next best thing."

Gregoire signed the order shortly after testifying at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Seattle on a proposed finding that six greenhouse gases threaten health.

She was the first of about 200 environmentalists, businesses, students and government officials to speak.

"The consequences to our health, the environment and our economy are staggering," she told EPA regulators. "Climate change will hurt our state and our citizens in many ways."

At a noon rally outside the EPA hearing, hundreds - including a few dressed as polar bears and geoducks - urged the federal agency to act.

Brendan Higgins, 16, pointed to the Olympic Mountains beyond Elliott Bay and said: "It's amazing, but there's this underlying question of whether it'll stay that way. If we don't do anything, it won't."

Gregoire's executive order requires the Ecology Department to enter an agreement with the state's largest emitter, TransAlta's coal-fired plant in Centralia, to cut emissions by half no later than 2025.

"That is huge," said Doug Howell, a senior representative with the Sierra Club. The state likely couldn't reach its 2020 goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without reductions from TransAlta, he said.

"It's good news for Washington and TransAlta," said Marcy McAuley, a spokeswoman for TransAlta, based in Calgary, Alberta. "It gives certainty on emissions targets. We believe the time frame set out is good. It's realistic."

The order also directs transportation planning groups in the state's largest counties to come up with ways to reduce the number of miles that are driven.

Both the TransAlta and transportation pieces were key elements of the climate change bill that failed to pass in the final days of the 105-day legislative session.

Legislators had little appetite for a cap or a trade system. The governor's requested bill morphed into one calling for more studies, then into a grab bag of measures to curb climate change. That bill failed to pass the Senate.

Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, credited the governor for her perseverance.

"She's impatient and she's not willing to allow us to miss this opportunity," he said.