Global-warming bill praised by Pelosi during state visit

A day after the Washington House passed a bill to tackle global warming, the legislation received an enthusiastic greeting from Democrats ranging from Gov. Christine Gregoire to visiting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

At a news conference prompted by Pelosi's one-day visit to Seattle, Gregoire praised the Legislature's work, and promised she would sign the bill if it were to pass out of the Legislature.

"I'm very proud of our Legislature stepping up and saying that we are going to be a leader not just in this state, this region and this country, but around the world," said Gregoire, as she stood inside a South Seattle factory where soybean oil is converted into biodiesel.

But some top Republican state lawmakers on Friday warned that legislation clamping down on greenhouse gases could hurt the state's economy.

In a letter delivered to Gregoire on Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, and Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, described the response as an overreaction that could drive up power rates. And they took a jab at Pelosi, who lives in San Francisco.

"The majority party is simply following the environmental policies of San Francisco Democrats. No one has made the case that California policy is the best policy for Washington state. We firmly believe that it is not," they wrote.

Pelosi said that while she wasn't familiar with the details of the Washington bill, she welcomed it if it imitated global-warming legislation passed last year in California.

"It's the direction we must go in order to make the decisions necessary to stop global warming and to declare energy independence," she said.

The House bill, which passed 84-14, resembles several of the provisions in the landmark California law. The state Senate is expected to pass the House version.

It sets future deadlines to reduce greenhouse gases thought to be a major force in global warming — back to 1990s levels by 2020, and 50 percent below 1990s levels in 2050. It also bars new long-term power purchases or power plants that produce a lot of greenhouse gases, primarily coal plants.

Environmentalists and energy experts had a more measured response to the Washington legislation.

The bill would help to slow the growth of greenhouse gases by limiting new polluting power sources, said K.C. Golden, policy director for the environmental group Climate Solutions.

But the bill doesn't say how to reduce overall greenhouse-gas levels. "It sets the stage for, 'OK, what are the big steps forward?' " he said.

That's left to a state task force recently formed by Gregoire, as well as negotiations between Washington and four other Western states on a common approach to global-warming regulations.

Several energy experts said it's not clear if the legislation will affect the cost of power by limiting what kinds of power plants can be built.

Energy Northwest, a coalition of Washington public utilities, had feared that the bill could kill its plans to build a power plant fueled with either coal or waste from petroleum refining.

But the final version gives power plants some leeway if they can't reduce the pollution or inject the greenhouse gases in the ground.

Randy Hardy, an energy consultant and former head of the Bonneville Power Administration, said if the bill keeps the door open to technology like Energy Northwest's, sometimes called "clean coal," it might not affect prices. But if that kind of plant becomes too expensive to build, it could drive up demand for natural-gas-fired plants.

Golden, formerly the top energy official in the state's Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, said the power-plant rules should protect consumers from committing to new coal power that could suddenly get more costly.

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