06.28.08

Is climate change real?

Posted in Climate Change at 9:37 pm by Administrator

Some people question whether climate change is really happening, and whether or not it is caused by human activity. I believe it’s one of the most serious environmental threats we have ever faced. Extreme weather events such as Hurricane Katrina and this year’s “500-year flood” in the Mississippi watershed are just the beginning. I don’t think we want to wait until our coastal cities are underwater before taking meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions.

The global south is already suffering severe consequences. I worked in the Sahel region of West Africa 25 years ago with farmers who were already suffering from climate change. They could no longer grow traditional food crops and their wells were dry. I did what I could to help mitigate the effects by building wells & earthen dams for water supply and irrigation, but it was inadequate. They became “environmental refugees” and had to leave land they had farmed for generations. They moved to shantytowns near the capital city, where jobs were scarce, pay was meager, and living conditions were miserable.

The story is similar throughout the global south. In Bangladesh and other lowland countries, sea level rise has already inundated hundreds of square miles of farmland. Some island nations in the south Pacific have had to relocate entire populations. As the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelves collapse and sea level rises, where will the millions of displaced farmers go?

Here in the northwest, glaciers I climbed five years ago are nearly gone. That’s our water supply. Our rivers have severely reduced flows. Forests to the east of Mt. Rainier are nearly dead from drought and disease. If these trends continue, we too could become environmental refugees.

Some people claim that it will cost too much to control carbon emissions, and it will wreck the economy. I did an extensive analysis of the cost of reducing carbon emissions to 1990 levels at all fossil fuel power plants in the U.S., in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. A well funded propaganda campaign funded by the utility industry claimed that it would ruin the economy. My analysis demonstrated the opposite: the cost to the U.S. economy in lost output was about $86 billion over five years. This is less than the cost of Hurricane Katrina, or the Mississippi floods.

My analysis did not factor in the benefits of increased efficiency and productivity, and the development of new technologies and industries that would be required to meet the demand for higher efficiency. When these are factored in, the net impact would be significant economic growth and opportunity.

Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said “Innovation is key to environmental stewardship.” Materials that once were discarded can go into construction projects rather than landfills. Recycled industrial byproducts like coal ash can be made into concrete. Sulfur dioxide can be made into synthetic gypsum used in drywall.

Green industries are among the fastest- growing sectors of the economy, and Washington will benefit by being ahead of the curve and developing this industry as quickly as possible. We need to invest in green-collar job training to prepare Washington’s workforce for clean energy industry and to ensure that green businesses have the skilled workers they need.

We need enforceable limits on global warming pollution. We can conserve a great deal of energy by improving efficiency, changing behaviors, retiring old, dirty energy sources, and producing more renewable energy, all at reasonable cost. All of these solutions need to be incentivized in utility rate structures, to promote rapid implementation. I personally lobbied my legislators in support of I-937.

We also need to take meaningful personal action, and I actively work to reduce my own carbon footprint. I started by commuting to work by bicycle and installing solar heat and hot water in my home. I installed 20” of insulation in my attic, and keep the thermostat at 65 degrees in my home. With appropriate incentives, every household could adopt similar measures at very low cost.

Legislative solutions that will help reduce carbon emissions and slow the rate of climate change:
 A renewable portfolio standard for new sources of electrical generation
 “Feed-in rate tariffs” that allow utilities to charge a higher rate for renewable energy
 Production tax credits that reduce the cost of new investment in renewable energy
 Consumer tax credits that speed the adoption of conservation measures and renewable energy
 Implementing a cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon emissions. Past experience with SO2 and NOx emissions trading has shown that it leads to greater reductions in pollutants than either taxes or regulations do.
 Auctioning (rather than allocating) permits will establish a meaningful price floor for traded allowances. The cap needs to be reduced over time so that targeted reductions in carbon emissions actually occur.
 Prioritize transportation investments that demonstrably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and re-orient state transportation investment to encourage mass transit, carpooling, and high-speed bicycle routes on all major highways.
 Reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by creating meaningful transportation alternatives to the automobile, especially mass transit and dedicated bicycle routes.
 The I-5 replacement bridge should include high capacity transit (light rail or bus rapid transit) and bicycle lanes.
 Develop an incentive-based approach to land use planning that encourages higher density development and leaves open spaces for wetlands, wildlife corridors, and greenways.

My opponent Don Benton opposed these solutions to climate change:
 Opposed a 2008 House Bill 2815 Addressing greenhouse gas emissions and creating green collar jobs
 Opposed a 2008 Senate Bill 6580 Addressing the impacts of climate change
 Did not vote on a 2007 House Bill authorizing utilities to engage in environmental mitigation efforts.
 Did not vote on a 2005 Senate Bill providing tax incentives for clean and alternative fuel vehicles

Why we need a new I-5 bridge.

Posted in Transportation and Infrastructure at 4:18 am by Administrator

Most of us would agree that economic growth is a good thing. Economies grow and new jobs are created through trade in goods and services with other regions. Adequate transportation and infrastructure are vital to that interaction and trade. If you were an employer with customers in Portland, would you locate here if you couldn’t get across the bridge? If you were a shipper and your drivers wasted several hours a day stuck in traffic on the I-5 bridge, would you locate a new warehouse here in Vancouver?

Like it or not, Vancouver’s economy is highly dependent on Portland. New jobs won’t happen if people and goods can’t get from here to there more easily. The current I-5 bridge is inadequate for current needs, and it will only get worse. If we want good jobs for future generations, we need to be able to move a lot more people between here and Portland than we currently do.

Since more lanes will only relieve congestion in the short term, we need to include a public transit option to increase capacity and meet future needs. To relieve traffic congestion, pay for the bridge, and make it faster and cheaper to use mass transit, we should charge a toll on the replacement bridge. A toll is not a tax. A toll is a user fee that is paid only by people who use the bridge. People who don’t wish to pay the toll should have the option of taking mass transit instead.

Time is money. Exactly how much is it worth? That’s determined by how much people are willing to pay to avoid traffic. The toll should be set at the price where congestion is eliminated, and it should vary depending on the time of day in order to maintain a free flow of traffic.

A toll bridge with high capacity mass transit is the best way to support job growth in Vancouver for future generations. We need to build it now, while we still have federal support for the project. I read the finance chapter of the EIS and am convinced that we can pay for the bridge without increasing taxes. I fully support the recommendations of the Columbia River Task Force.

I also support expansion of the Port of Vancouver, which will add between 4,000-5,000 jobs within the next 15 years. The Port currently provides about 2,300 direct jobs, $82 million in annual tax revenue, and nearly $99 million in annual payroll income to local residents.

 Don Benton is opposed to replacing the I-5 bridge, and he voted against funding infrastructure development for the Vancouver waterfront

06.27.08

Supporting labor supports the local economy

Posted in Labor and Trade at 3:12 am by Administrator

Are you disturbed that our plants and jobs have moved offshore? That many of our goods are made in sweatshops without labor or environmental regulations? Or that the global economy is caught in an economic and environmental crisis at the same time huge corporations are earning record profits? In order to support workers and rebuild the local economy, we need to think about our priorities every time we shop. Living wages, comprehensive health benefits, and protection of workers’ rights attract high quality workers and businesses to our state, and provide incentives for higher education and training. What’s good for workers is good for the economy.

I support the following pro-labor policies:
 Buying locally and at family or employee-owned businesses whenever possible.
 Policies that protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively, and that strengthen and enforce laws that prohibit employer intimidation and coercion.
 Policies that ensure that workers have legal rights to safe, healthy and fair conditions at work.
 Strengthening prevailing wage, minimum wage, and indexing laws.
 Extending of unemployment benefits in times of economic hardship.
 Policies to establish a ‘living wage’ designed to ensure that low-wage workers and their families can live above the poverty level.
 Policies that guarantee pay equity for women who perform similar jobs and have similar skills and experience as their male counterparts.
 Worker’s rights to organize and choose who shall represent them in negotiations with management.
 Requiring nonunion workers to pay their fair share of services provided by a union in cases where a union is representing them and negotiating on their behalf.
 Providing all residents with access to portable and affordable health care coverage.
 I oppose the privatization of Social Security. This is corporate welfare to the banking and brokerage industry.

My opponent Don Benton opposed the following bills, which were supported by the Washington State Labor Council (details at www.wslc.org/legis/vr-sen08.htm):
 Opposed SB 5261, granting the insurance commissioner the authority to review individual health benefit plan rates to ensure rate hikes are justified and reasonable.
 Opposed SSB 6333, establishing a citizens’ work group on health care to review proposed statewide plans and propose a plan to provide comprehensive, affordable health care for all Washingtonians.
 Opposed SB 6241, prohibiting the sale or use of prescriber-identifiable prescription data by Pharmaceutical Companies for commercial or marketing purposes.
 Opposed SSB 6809, providing a tax exemption for low income working families, as measured by the federal earned income tax credit.
 Opposed SHB 2815, requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and establish a green jobs initiative to increase the number of green economy jobs to 25,000 by 2020.
 My opponent’s campaign materials do not have the union label. Mine do.