26 07 09 - 17:14 Gregoire brings practical experience to D.C. climate debate
By Scott Bland
Washington - Four governors, including Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, testified before a Senate committee Tuesday on the viability of a clean energy economy.
For Gregoire, it was an opportunity to show off her state's practical success at creating clean, green jobs. As Democrats and Republicans rage at each other over environmental legislation in the halls of Congress, both sides are plagued by unprovable predictions. Democrats claim a cap and trade bill under consideration, which would mandate 80 percent reductions in U.S. carbon emissions by 2050, would fuel a huge boom in innovation and clean energy jobs. Republicans say it would cripple the economy with massive energy prices.
Democrats won passage for a cap and trade bill in the House of Representatives in June, 219-212. Now, the same back-and-forth of optimistic and apocalyptic predictions is on in the Senate.
Gregoire, a Democrat, came to the committee armed with actual results from a state that already has a policy like the one the Senate is debating for the entire country.
Washington State is a member of a regional cap and trade program, the Western Climate Initiative, which includes six other Western states and has similar reduction goals to those proposed in Congress. The six states and three Canadian provinces have to reduce their carbon emissions 15 percent by 2020, close to the 17 percent national goal in the House of Representatives' cap and trade bill.
Since the Western Climate Initiative plan took shape in 2007, Washington's green industries have flourished.
"In 2007, when we adopted a set of climate change goals related to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, we also set a goal ... to reach 25,000 green jobs by 2020," Gregoire said. "Less than two years later, we can point to 47,000 green jobs right now. Our green jobs are growing much faster than predicted."
The governor cited a study from the President's Council of Economic Advisers that predicted 52 percent job growth in green industries through 2016, compared to 14 percent growth overall.
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, both Democrats, testified in favor of the bill, while Gov. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said the bill would cripple the traditional energy industry.
By putting a sunset for carbon emissions on the horizon and extending tax breaks and incentives to clean industries, Gregoire maintained Washington State created the economic conditions to fuel the green boom Senate Democrats predict. Gregoire noted that the growth in green jobs is also fueling an increase in clean energy-related concentrations at Washington colleges.
Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat who represents Bainbridge Island, said Washington has been a laboratory for the nation's energy policy.
"We have acted as the absolute epicenter for green technology development," said Inslee, a key author of the House cap and trade bill. "Washington can legitimately say it's been leading the country."
"As you look to expand training opportunities in the green economy, again, we are doing our part," Gregoire said.
Among those involved in the green education expansion is the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, a business school seeking national accreditation in August. Founded in 2002, BGI awards master's degrees in sustainable business and has seen interest climb each year.
"We've filled our class earlier than ever before," said Sarah Miller, BGI's director of external relations. She said Bainbridge has about 80 new students enrolled for the next year.
Washington's generous tax incentives and the lagging economy have both induced students, who tend to be in their mid-30s, to pursue environmental business training, Miller said.
"People are looking for a different kind of business model that will get them back on their feet," she said.
Alums from the program are pursuing green ventures from energy conservation to greenhouse gas capture. Kevin Maas, a 2007 BGI graduate, started a company in the state that digests the methane from animal manure, keeping the gas out of the atmosphere and using it for energy production. Another 2007 graduate, Dawn Danby, integrates sustainable features into the popular California-based AutoCAD computer design program.
Miller said Washington State's climate plan has created great demand for green skills.
"There's a variety of opportunity out there," Miller said. "It's kind of like a Wild West of new opportunity."
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