King County to join climate exchange

The King County Council authorized County Executive Ron Sims on Monday to make the county the first in the nation to join a marketplace whose members buy and sell "carbon credits" as a way of trying to slow global warming.

As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the King County government would make a legally binding commitment to reduce its atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-altering greenhouse gases each year.

Members of the exchange include manufacturers, power companies, forest-products companies, cities, universities and Amtrak. The county's carbon emissions in 2010 would have to be 6 percent below average emissions from 1998 to 2001.

If the county misses that target, it would have to buy carbon credits from members that reduced emissions beyond what they agreed to do. If the county cuts emissions more than its agreed level, it would receive cash payments that would be used to further reduce air pollution.

"Global warming is a very serious threat ... to our economy, our national security and our environmental health, and I think in fact to our very way of life now and in the future," said County Council Chairman Larry Phillips, who sponsored the ordinance.

Sims had urged joining the climate exchange, saying membership would give King County a voice in setting rules for the trading of emission credits. He particularly wants to make sure transit operators like King County aren't penalized for putting more buses on the road, and get credit for the cars those buses are intended to replace. Sims, who convened a conference last fall on the regional effects of global warming, this year created a team to address global warming and ordered steps to reduce the county's carbon emissions.

The Sierra Club on Friday named Sims and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels the first two local officials to win its national Edgar Wayburn Award for outstanding service to the environment by persons in government.

Nickels sparked a movement among the nation's mayors to commit their cities to meet the Kyoto Protocol goal of reducing carbon emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels. To date, 266 mayors have signed on, representing cities with a combined population of 47 million, the Sierra Club said.

"Both men are also proof that in today's America the best examples of vision and leadership can be found at the local level," Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said in a statement.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com