Climate Change > What are we doing about it in Washington State?

What are we doing about it in Washington State?

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In Washington State, we take climate change seriously.  Our response is gaining momentum but we need to do much more.  We have been working with our environmental partners to reduce our contributions to greenhouse gases that cause global warming and to prepare for climate change.  We have already taken the important steps below:

State Government

• In 2007, the Washington legislature passed SB 6001, which among other things, adopted the Governor's Climate Change Challenge goals into statute and created a performance standard for electrical utilities that serve our state. Utilities may capture and store (sequester) carbon associated with the their production of electricity to meet the performance standard. By June 2008, Ecology is to have rules on implementing the standard and how sequestration plans will be approved. You can follow the rule making process on the Ecology Web site.



• Working together - Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced June 8, 2007, that the state and the Canadian province will work together to cap and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to collaborate on the innovation and implementation of clean technologies. The Governor and the Premier signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Seattle to launch the collaborative effort.
  
  In March, five western state governors, including Governor Gregoire, established the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative to collaborate in identifying, evaluating and implementing ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The initiative includes setting an overall regional reduction goal for GHG emissions, developing a design to achieve the goal and participating in a The Climate Registry, a multi-state registry to enable tracking, management, and crediting for entities that reduce their GHG emissions.
  
  
• Facing the challenge - Governor Chris Gregoire signed Executive Order No. 07-02 establishing goals for reductions in climate pollution, increases in jobs, and reductions in expenditures on imported fuel. This statewide effort will address climate change, grow the clean energy economy and move Washington toward energy independence.
  
  This executive order directs the Washington departments of Ecology and Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED) to lead “Washington Climate Challenge,” a process that will engage business, community and environmental leaders over the next year. Washington Climate Challenge will consider the full range of policies and strategies that may be adopted to achieve the goals established by Governor Gregoire.



• Requiring cars, light trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles (SUVs and passenger vans) to meet tougher emissions standards starting with 2009 models. In Washington, 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation, including automobiles, planes, trains and ships. This means individuals can make a big difference in reducing our contribution to global warming.



• Promoting electrified transportation - While generating electricity does produce greenhouse gases, the efficiency of the generation is far superior to the combustion engine. Increases in efficiency translate to decreases in pollution, even with coal. And if the electricity is renewable, there's far less pollution.
  
  The Electrify Transportation in Washington Group (ETWG) includes representatives from agencies, cities, counties, utilities, associations and non-profits that have joined forces to reduce our dependence on oil and curb global warming through the electrification of the transportation sector. Read the ETWG's Briefing book and a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study on the grid impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
  
  More than 1,100 hybrid vehicles have been purchased to serve in Washington state agencies, college/universities, and subdivisions of state government since vehicle model year 2000.



• Prohibiting most types of outdoor burning in urban and urban growth areas.



• Retrofitting 50 percent of school buses and 20 percent of local government diesel-engine vehicles with equipment to reduce the amount of toxic diesel emissions.



• Requiring fuel suppliers to ensure 2 percent of diesel is biodiesel and 2 percent of gasoline is ethanol



• Requiring new or expanded fossil fuel power plants to mitigate 20 percent of CO₂ emissions



• Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has joined with public utilities commissions in California, Oregon, and New Mexico to work on a regional approach to address climate change through reduced greenhouse gas emissions.  A resolution signed Dec. 1, 2006 is designed to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, and conservation.



• The state of Washington now ranks seventh when it comes to the generation of wind power in the United States, and the green energy the 300-foot-tall windmills produce is helping to hold down electricity prices.  Washington already is home to the largest wind farm in the nation, the Stateline project, which straddles the state's border with Oregon southeast of the Tri-Cities. Excerpted from Tri-City Herald, By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington D.C. bureau, April 3, 2006)



• Washington voters say ‘yes' to I-937 for clean energy. In 2006, Washington  joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia that have a so-called renewable energy portfolio standard or goal.  Under current Washington law, utilities are already required to offer customers the option of investing in renewable energy, by paying extra on their monthly bill.  Under Initiative 937, large utilities with more than 25,000 customers would have to meet 15 percent of their annual load with renewable energy resources such as wind power, solar energy or sewage gas by 2020. (Excerpted from Rachel La Corte, Associated Press Writer, 11/2006)



• Solar panels light the Olympia state capitol building with the largest array of solar panels on a state capitol building in the United States.  This is a public private partnership.



• Washington Department of Ecology's headquarters building in Lacey has been named an "Energy Star".  "We require less energy than average at this building, and we've reduced our effect on the environment from day-to-day operations," said Carol Fleskes, administrative services manager for Ecology.  "To us, walking our talk means being a good example for other office buildings." The Department of Ecology building is currently the only state-owned building with an Energy Star label.



• WSU Energy Program assists industrial plants, private consulting firms, businesses, government agencies, and utilities with technical assistance, research, design and support for: motor and drive systems, steam, compressed air, pumping, heating and cooling, lighting, building envelopes, and renewable energy. 
  
  
• The Evergreen State College students voted to offset their campus' electricity use with energy from renewable sources.  A student fee of $1 per credit will pay for the purchase of Green Tags (renewable energy certificates) equal to the amount of electricity used by the campus each year.  Students proposed that ten percent of the revenue collected from the student green energy fee be invested into a fund for campus projects advancing renewable energy.  The students overwhelmingly supported the initiative by a vote of 1102 to 11.

Climate Leaders

• Climate Solutions – A Washington-based non-profit pioneer for renewable energy.  Climate Solutions mission is to accelerate practical and profitable solutions to global warming by galvanizing leadership, growing investment and bridging divides.  Climate Solutions is a leading source of regional ideas and inspiration on ways to act decisively and creatively towards addressing the global warming crisis.



• University of Washington Climate Impacts Group – The Climate Impacts Group (CIG) engages in climate science in the public interest, working to understand the consequences of climate variability and climate change for the US Pacific Northwest (PNW). CIG's assessment examines climate impacts on four diverse, yet connected, natural systems of the PNW - water, forests, salmon, and coasts - and the human socioeconomic and/or political systems associated with each.  CIG works to provide regional planners, decision makers, and natural resource managers with valuable knowledge about the ways in which crucial regional resources are vulnerable to changes in climate, and how this vulnerability could best be reduced.

Assistance and Incentives

• Washington Homeowner Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency - Local utilities offer rebates and assistance for solar, wind, energy efficient appliances, weatherizing homes, heat pumps, and more.



• Washington incentives for renewable energy extend beyond homeowners to include renewable energy producers, schools, production incentives and more.



• Solar homes all around Washington State are showcased in Solar Home Tours in October. The Olympia Solar Home Tours 2006 joined more than 40 Washington communities on both the east and west side of the Cascades, with annual fall solar home shows.



• WSU Energy Program's Industrial Services - The WSU Energy Program is part of a regional team that offers technical support, plant assessments and best-practices trainings aimed at improving energy efficiency at industrial facilities in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Communities in Washington

• Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon has launched an effort to reduce the County's carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. Reardon, a member of the state's Climate Advisory Team, will create a Snohomish County Staff Climate Change Committee (pdf). The committee, made up of experts who work for the County, will look at issues such as alternative fuels, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, County energy and water use, and adoption of green building design and construction standards for County facilities. Reardon will also ask community stakeholders to serve on a Green Ribbon Climate Change Task Force to examine the community’s carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. The task force will make policy recommendations by December 2008.



• 21 cities in Washington State have joined the US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement to slow climate change with better energy, water, waste and transport management.  Fighting global warming begins at home, a number of city leaders believe.  These 21 current or former state mayors signed on to help protect the Earth's climate, according to www.coolmayors.com.
  • Auburn, Peter B. Lewis
  • Bainbridge Island, Darlene Kordonowy
  • Battle Ground, John G. Idsinga
  • Bellevue, Steve Sarkozy
  • Bellingham, Mark Asmundson*
  • Bremerton, Cary Bozeman
  • Burien, Noel Gibb*
  • Burien, Joan McGilton
  • Edmonds, Gary Haakenson
  • Everett, Ray Stephanson
  • Issaquah, Ava Frisinger
  • Kirkland, Mary-Alyce Burleigh*
  • Kirkland, James L. Lauinger
  • La Conner, Wayne Everton
  • Lacey, Virgil Clarkson
  • Lake Forest Park, David Hutchinson
  • Langley, Neil Colburn
  • Lynnwood, Mike McKinnon*
  • Lynnwood, Don Gough
  • Mercer Island, Alan Merkle
  • Oak Harbor, Patricia Cohen
  • Olympia, Mark Foutch
  • Pacific, Richard Hildreth
  • Redmond, Rosemarie M. Ives
  • Renton, Kathy Keolker-Wheeler
  • Sammamish, Michele Petitti*
  • Sammamish, Mark Cross
  • Seattle, Greg Nickels
  • Shoreline, Robert L. Ransom
  • Spokane, Dennis P. Hession
  • Tacoma, Bill Baarsma
  • Tukwila, Steve Mullet
  • Tumwater, Ralph C. Osgood
  • Vancouver, Royce E. Pollard
  • Washougal, Stacee Sellers
  
  
  
  * = Former mayors



• Seattle – A Pioneer in Climate Action
  • Seattle Mayor Nickels launched and led the US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement in February 2005. More than 780 mayors in 43 states, representing 78 million American citizens, have signed on to the 12-step program for their own cities to meet or beat Kyoto's original target for the U.S. – cutting greenhouse-gas emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.  See Cool Mayors
  • Seattle Mayor's Green Ribbon Commission on Climate & Climate Action Plan describes a suite of climate protection actions that will allow Seattle to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal.
  • Seattle City Government has already reduced greenhouse gas emission by more than 60% with green buildings and alternative fuel vehicles
  • Seattle City Light is the only electric utility in the country to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Seattle banned commercial logging in the Cedar River watershed and is committed to restoring 2,500 acres of urban forests by 2024.  Forests absorb & store CO₂.
  
  
  
• City of Tacoma - In ways big and small, Tacoma is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the environment.  It's all part of the "think globally, act locally" campaign to slow the process of global warming.  Cities and their residents ought to do everything they can to curb carbon dioxide emissions that harm the environment, said Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma.  Baarsma calls global warming and the disruption of worldwide climates "probably the most important issue that faces humankind. It's the future of Planet Earth.  It's the future of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren," he said. Excerpted from Tacoma News Tribune, Kris Sherman,  December 25th, 2006 – Going Green in Tacoma)



• The Bellingham City Council unanimously decided to green 100% of the electricity used in city operations making Bellingham the sixth largest local government purchaser of renewable energy in the country.  The clean power purchase is part of the city's Green Power Community Challenge, a community-wide campaign to promote renewable energy and reduce the community's dependence on fossil fuels and its vulnerability to rising energy costs.  It also is attracting imitators.  The Whatcom County government has also decided to begin buying 100% of its electricity from green sources.  Nearly 60 businesses and several hundred residential customers are also doing the same, and the numbers are growing.



• Ballard - In August 2006, Seattle's Ballard neighborhood became the first carbon neutral community in the nation.  "Individual Americans of all ages are becoming a part of a movement, asking what they can do as individuals and what they can do as consumers and as citizens and voters.  At least one entire community - Ballard, in Washington State - is embarking on a goal of making the entire community zero carbon," Al Gore said in a 2006 speech at New York University. Sustainable Ballard fosters new awareness of the importance of community connections and meaningful sustainability due to excess energy dependence and consumption, and the depletion of key resources.  Sustainable Ballard conducts workshops, public events, writes reports and research articles, and provides design and planning services, for community education.

Watershed Planning

• Preparing for low in-stream flow scenarios - Watershed Planning units throughout Washington are developing recommendations for different solutions to in-stream flow needs.  Some options under consideration include:
  • assessment of current groundwater use
  • water conservation
  • leak detection programs (replace leaking pipes in water systems)
  • implement an efficiency rate structure through local utilities
  • summer surcharge on water rates to reduce outdoor water use
  • water reuse projects (sewage treatment, gray water)
  
  

  For case studies in Reclaimed Water Use see Creating new water supplies across Washington State

Energy Innovators

• A super efficient airplane, Boeing's new "Dreamliner", had the most successful launch in Boeing's history at its Everett facility near Seattle.  Higher operating efficiency, less weight at the same speed and 20 percent more fuel-efficient than existing planes, the 787 Dreamliner will bring big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes.



• Microplanet is a Northwest global pioneer in least-cost power planning and is marketing its voltage reduction products internationally. MicroPlanet's products improve an electrical grid's reliability, prevent capital intensive infrastructure upgrades, and save businesses money.



• REC SGS Moses Lake plant is the world's first dedicated solar silicon manufacturing facility, employing 200.  Currently, the world's only dedicated producer of polycrystalline silicon for solar cells is located in Moses Lake, Washington. 



• The SolarWorld Vancouver plant reprocesses electronics industry silicon for photovoltaic use for solar energy. The Northwest is one of America's major areas for processing silicon due to clean water, a skilled workforce, and low hydroelectric rates.



• Much of the Northwest's $2 billion share in the $15 billion global smart energy sector is based in Washington, including energy metering by Spokane-based Itron and Schweitzer Labs of Pullman.



• Imperium Biofuels plant in Grays Harbor will be one of the largest in the U.S. Biofuels plants.  This will increase the demand for Eastern Washington agricultural products, create new local jobs, increase revenue to local distributors, and lower the cost of diesel.  Biofuels burn much cleaner than petroleum diesel.