Statement by Washington Conservation and Clean Energy Advocates on the Western Climate Initiative Framework

Climate Solutions, Earth Ministry, Environment Washington, Futurewise, League of Women Voters of Washington, National Wildlife Federation, NW Energy Coalition, Sierra Club Cascade Chapter, Sightline, Transportation Choices Coalition, Washington Conservation Voters, Washington Environmental Council, Washington Interfaith Power & Light

Today, the Western Climate Initiative unveiled its final proposal for a market-based system to cap and reduce the region’s global warming pollution. We can be proud of the bold action our region is taking to curb climate change and to reduce our dependence on dirty energy. This is a major milestone in the search for solutions to climate change and fossil-fuel dependence, and we commend Governor Chris Gregoire for her leadership in forging an historic regional and international accord.

A properly designed, economy-wide cap-and-trade program is a vital tool for reducing our state’s global-warming emissions and driving investments in energy efficiency and new renewable power, resulting in a cleaner, more secure and affordable energy future.

While the WCI proposal takes an important step toward that goal, it must be strengthened in several areas. Thankfully, individual states and provinces are empowered to make some critical choices about how they’ll implement the program. We expect Washington’s legislature and governor, when authorizing our participation in the WCI, to make the choices essential to creating a fair and effective program.

State leaders must address three areas to create a fair and effective carbon reduction program for our state:

1. Equity — The WCI proposal calls for participants to auction a minimum of 10% of pollution permits at the beginning of the program in 2012, ramping up to 25% in 2020. Giving away a majority of pollution permits would create windfall profits for corporations at consumers’ expense. In contrast, Washington State has an opportunity to require most polluters to purchase permits, creating a revenue stream which can help consumers, especially those with low to moderate incomes, cope with rising fossil fuel prices, and speed our transition to a clean energy future. States and provinces may choose to set higher auction levels, and we encourage Washington to auction all pollution permits by 2020.
2. Loopholes — The framework allows up to 49% of emissions reductions to come from “offset” projects outside of the capped sectors, even outside WCI’s geographic area.  While the use of limited offsets can provide some flexibility and cost reductions, too many offsets simply delay efforts to clean up our greatest pollution sources. Plus, many offsets have historically not delivered the emissions reductions they promised.  Offsets should be strictly limited and, because offset projects often fail to deliver promised emissions reductions, be carefully designed and monitored.
3. Effectiveness — The WCI program creates the first economy-wide initiative to cap emissions from all major sources of global warming pollution, including power plants, industries, transportation fuels, and commercial and residential combustion. However, neither transportation emissions nor the natural gas used in homes and businesses would be subject to the emissions cap until 2015.  The WCI says the three-year delay will provide time to implement other policies giving people more transportation choices.  Such policies are essential.  The growth in how much we drive and how many of us are driving will make transportation the dominant uncontrolled source of emissions unless we invest now in creating desirable land use and transportation alternatives for our citizens. We look forward to working with the legislature and governor to pass policies that help create transit-oriented communities.

Events of the last decade have driven home the hard truth that fossil fuel dependence is a dead-end street that drains our economy, compromises our security and threatens our children’s future. Through smart policies, we have an unprecedented opportunity to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, invest in new technologies, create local jobs, and build a stronger, more stable clean energy economy.  By working through the Western Climate Initiative and crafting solutions specifically suited to our state’s interests, Washington State can build momentum for Congressional action on climate change. If fairly and effectively implemented, the WCI system can play a central role in ending our fossil fuel dependence and building a clean energy future for Washington.