Greenhouse Gas bill
I'm Bob Larson. It passed in the House along a party line vote, 50-48. Now, the bill that would set stricter standards on greenhouse gas emissions moves on to the Senate for consideration. During debate, House Republicans like the 7th District's Jacqueline Maycumber tried to point out HB 1144 would cost our state jobs and put the financial burden on those left behind ...MAYCUMBER ... "I rise in opposition to this bill because we had amendments based on science, based on understanding our impacts, and what we continuously do is we pass policy that affects someone else."
While farmers and ranchers wait to see how this bill would impact them, Maycumber says we're punishing companies for their efforts to cut greenhouse gases ...
MAYCUMBER ... "We have the cleanest manufacturers in the world, and our good governor awards those manufacturers, and I've been to plenty of them with these great glass-paneled awards, the cleanest in the world. We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in innovation to be the cleanest in the world and then we pass policy and those companies say, 'it's not worth it.'"
Maycumber says we're going at this problem backwards ...
MAYCUMBER ... "We lose living wage jobs. We lose products built with innovation and clean energy and then we still purchase them. We export our jobs and then we export out pollution."
The bill, sponsored by West Seattle Representative Joe Fitzgibbon, revises the emissions reduction goals adopted by the state back in 2008.
By 2025, the state would reduce emissions to 19 percent below 1990 levels, 40 percent by 2035, and 80 percent by 2050.