State’s Climate Action Team meets in Bellingham to continue work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Washington State Department of Ecology

Department of Ecology News Release - September 17, 2008

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State's Climate Action Team meets in Bellingham to continue work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions

OLYMPIA – Washington's Climate Action Team meets Thursday, Sept. 18, and Friday, Sept. 19, in Bellingham to continue its work on actions to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases in the state.

Climate Action Team (CAT) members are working to turn some of the 2007 Climate Advisory Team's most promising recommendations into policies and actions to help meet greenhouse gas emission reductions. Gov. Chris Gregoire first outlined those reductions in Executive Order 07-02 in February 2007. The 2008 Legislature codified the reductions in House Bill 2815, the Governor's request legislation on climate change and green jobs.

The team is led by Jay Manning, director of the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), and Juli Wilkerson, director of the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED).

CAT members will meet from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Hotel Bellwether, One Bellwether Way, Bellingham.

You can follow the work of CAT members, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and other climate change groups at the Ecology/CTED climate change Web site, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/. On the climate change Web site, you also can:

Sign up for the climate change listserv to receive updated news and information, including WCI, CAT, The Climate Registry and the implementation of HB 2815.
Find details on the CAT's charge and its membership as well as the various Implementation Working Groups and their members.
Learn more about what the state is doing to address climate change on the regional, national and international levels.
Learn how you can comment on climate change efforts.
Find out how you can act individually to help curb climate change.
Read climate change legislation approved by the Governor and the Legislature.

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Media Contact: Seth Preston, Ecology communications manager, 360-407-6848; 360-584-5744 cell; spre461@ecy.wa.gov
Ecology/CTED climate change Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/