Inslee: Seattle Has Led on Global Warming, Feds Must Follow
Inslee: Seattle has led on global warming, feds must follow
November 2, 2007
Efforts to address global warming by mayors of major U.S. cities came under the national spotlight during a Seattle field hearing of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
The panel, created earlier this year by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and chaired by U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), convened its second ever satellite hearing to highlight what mayors have been doing to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and how their experiences can inform federal lawmakers who are hammering out final details of an energy-independence package and crafting climate-change legislation.
"It's time for the great ideas initiated here in Washington state to become federal policy in Washington, D.C.," said U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), a member of the global warming panel who hails from the Puget Sound area and chaired the field hearing in Seattle on Friday. Inslee has championed a national clean-energy initiative for five years and authored the New Apollo Energy Act with his vision for such a plan.
The afternoon hearing, entitled "Bright Lights in the Cities: Pathways to an Energy-Efficient Future," featured testimony by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. It was held in conjunction with a two-day conference that Nickels hosted for signers of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which commits cities to meet or exceed the carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets set by the international Kyoto Protocol.
Inslee, who encouraged Markey in September to hold the hearing in Seattle during the U.S. Mayors National Climate Protection Summit, commented during his opening statement, "It's fitting that the mayors' climate summit and this hearing are being held in Seattle because the University of Washington is at the center of an impressive constellation of climate research that goes on in the Pacific Northwest, and our region truly has pioneered efforts to reduce carbon emissions."
Other committee members who participated in the hearing include U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.). Local U.S. Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) also were in attendance.
The U.S. Senate and House passed energy-independence packages in June and August, respectively. Negotiations between leaders of the two chambers on final legislation are ongoing; a vote on final passage is expected before the end of the year.
On Thursday, a Senate subcommittee approved a climate-change bill. The legislation authored by U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), America's Climate Security Act, would establish a cap on carbon-dioxide emissions, incrementally reducing such pollution to 65 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. The House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and the panel's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) also are taking steps to craft global-warming legislation. They released the first in a series of white papers on the subject in October.
Below is the text of Inslee's prepared opening remarks.
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee
Opening statement for Select Committee field hearing in Seattle
Nov. 2, 2007
I'd like to open by thanking Select Committee Chairman Ed Markey for agreeing to hold this field hearing in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors National Climate Protection Summit. For the last five years, I've been advocating a New Apollo Project to transition our economy from one based on fossil fuels, to one based on clean-energy technologies. Congress now is crafting legislation to accomplish this.
It's time for the great ideas initiated here in Washington state to become federal policy in Washington, D.C. This hearing will highlight global warming success stories from Seattle - and other American cities - to inform the work we're currently doing on energy-independence and climate-change bills at the federal level.
I want to recognize my colleagues on the global warming committee who traveled to Seattle for this hearing: Representatives Greg Walden from Oregon, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee and Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin.
I'd like to thank two of my friends in the Washington state congressional delegation for joining us today: Congressman Norm Dicks, who was instrumental in providing a $94 million increase in funding for global warming research and mitigation programs in the House-passed interior appropriations bill, and Jim McDermott, who has used his position on the House Ways and Means Committee to help put an end to subsidies for Big Oil under our current tax system.
I also want to thank Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for his efforts on global warming. It's been great working with him on these issues and particularly on this hearing. I'm grateful he was able to host a conference for signers of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, accommodate this congressional hearing in the summit agenda and testify before the panel today.
I look forward to hearing his testimony and the testimony of Mayors Bloomberg, Diaz, Palmer, and Villaraigosa. Thank you for being here as well.
It's fitting that the mayors' climate summit and this hearing are being held in Seattle because the University of Washington is at the center of an impressive constellation of climate research that goes on in the Pacific Northwest, and our region truly has pioneered efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
For example, Greg Nickels started the push for mayors to strive for Kyoto Protocol greenhouse-gas emissions targets; and earlier this week, Seattle became one of the first U.S. cities to match these international goals.
In October, Seattle also announced it would participate in a yearlong pilot project to test plug-in hybrid vehicles that charge at an outlet at night, drive the next day for 40 miles off that charge, and then run off environmentally friendly biofuel.
Additionally, Greg and other area leaders, like King County Executive Ron Simms, have committed to smart growth zoning and transportation practices. And one year ago, Washington state adopted a standard for renewable energy in our electricity mix with the passage of Initiative 937, which I championed.
Look also to Seattle City Light, a municipally owned utility that delivers power to more than 380,000 area residents. In 2006, Seattle City Light's energy-efficiency initiatives reduced the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by more than 584,000 metric tons. That's equivalent to removing more than 131,000 cars from the road for one year. Seattle City Light also recently committed to becoming the first carbon-neutral utility in the nation.
We're in the process of crafting federal policies in Washington, D.C. to build on the local success of cities like Seattle.
To date, the U.S. House has passed an energy-independence package that would repeal $23 billion in government giveaways for Big Oil and invest these resources in clean-energy technologies that will help tame global warming. The legislation includes efficiency provisions that would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by as much as 10 billion tons - more than the annual emissions of all cars on the road in the United States today - through 2030.
I'm proud to have authored provisions in this broad energy package that would promote marine power; set the strictest ever standards for lighting, heating and cooling efficiency; establish a nationwide program for testing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; and, require states to consider a policy of decoupling utility rates from electricity sales to promote energy conservation, something that Seattle City Light already is doing.
Congress also is in early stages of crafting global-warming legislation that would put a cap on carbon-dioxide emissions. As a member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, I look forward to shaping and passing an aggressive U.S. cap and trade system.
We have significant work yet to do to help prevent worst case climate change scenarios. But there are significant reasons for optimism.
A few weeks ago, I launched a book with Bracken Hendricks on the clean-energy revolution called "Apollo's Fire." During research for the book, I learned about exciting initiatives - like the few local ones I've already mentioned - and promising technologies that are popping up across Washington state and around the nation. They are cause for optimism because they show that Americans have the ingenuity, talent, confidence and gumption to beat global warming.
I look forward to learning about more reasons for optimism from the mayors who will be testifying here today.
Source