02/27/08 Climate change legislation

Washington Ag February 27, 2008 Climate change legislation has been a priority focus of majority Democrats in the state legislature this year. The Climate Change bill, House Bill 2815 passed that chamber and is in the Senate. John Stuhlmiller of the Washington State Farm Bureau says the legislation came out of the House better than it began from their point of view. Stuhlmiller: "We actually were the only organization to officially oppose the bill on principle alone, that we are kind of heading the wrong direction. This would be making goals of reducing our carbon emissions, standards, and kind of beefing up the regulatory program to move that direction as well as looking to what is called the cap and trade program, or in other words capping the amount of carbon dioxide that folks emit and then trading credits. Kind of like we do with sulfur dioxide." The Farm Bureau wants to make sure that agriculture and forestry are fully recognized for the positive impact they have on the environment such that they should have "credits" that could be traded under a cap and trade program. Amendments adopted in the House moved the bill closer to Farm Bureau policy but there is concerned those gains could be lost in the Senate. I'm Bob Hoff.