We’ll lose a lot of jobs in the coming recession, but fortunately we’ll be buffered from the full effects of the economic slowdown because our industries are high-tech and export-oriented. Nonetheless, we should invest in infrastructure and growth industries to soften the recession and ensure a quicker recovery.

On average, 47,000 jobs are created for every $1 billion invested in infrastructure. The Port of Vancouver currently provides about 2,300 direct jobs, $82 million in annual tax revenue, and nearly $99 million in annual payroll income to local residents. Expansion of the Port and railway could add 4,000-5,000 jobs in the next 15 years.

We should also move forward with implementing the recommendations of the Columbia River Crossing Task Force for the I-5 replacement bridge. Expanding freight and passenger capacity along the I-5 corridor will grow Clark County’s economy and pay off for generations to come.

Energy independence is another great way to create good new jobs. Investment in energy efficiency and new technology increases productivity in the same way that investment in computers and the internet enhanced productivity over the last 20 years. Fortunately, our U.S. Senators understand that. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) recently led efforts to pass landmark legislation in Congress that will spark investment in clean and renewable energy industries.

The clean energy legislation passed in the Senate in September by a vote of 93 to 2. It includes many new provisions: an eight year commercial solar and fuel cell investment tax credit; credits for ocean energy projects; tax credits for homeowners who install solar, small wind or geothermal heat pumps; a tax credit up to $7500 for new car buyers who purchase a plug-in electric vehicle, and a new credit for consumers who use alternative methods to heat their homes. The bill also creates an incentive to install new smart meters which empower homeowners to take control of their energy use. The legislation should be complemented by similar legislation here in Washington.

Senator Cantwell’s announcement said, “This landmark package will benefit American families and businesses by creating over half a million high wage jobs right here in America, empower homeowners to reduce their energy bills, and diminish our debilitating overdependence on fossil fuels. As a nation, we must transform the way we generate and consume energy by promoting investments in clean energy generation and increasing our nation’s energy productivity.”

The legislation creates jobs in energy efficiency:
 Extends the production credit for electricity produced from renewables, like wind, biomass and incremental hydropower. For the first time these production tax credits are extended to wave, tidal, and hydrokinetic technologies which have particular promise in the Pacific Northwest.
 Extends the investment tax credit for solar to eight years, providing the solar industry the market certainty they need to create 440,000 jobs nationally by 2016. In Washington State that translates to more than 10,000 permanent green collar jobs and as many as 15,000 construction jobs.
 Extends and expands the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) program that enables public power and consumer-owned utilities that cannot benefit from federal tax credits to reduce their renewable energy investment costs.
 In Washington State, 1,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity has already created employment for 2,650 Washingtonians during project construction and an additional 400 permanent jobs for a total economic benefit of $1.1 billion.
 Creates high-paying renewable industry jobs in manufacturing (welders, technicians, assembly, averaging $41,000), engineering (averaging $117,000) and non-technical (sales, marketing, development, financial, averaging $52,500).
 Provides utilities a tax incentive to put smart meters in Washington homes and businesses to take best advantage of efficient and renewable energy opportunities. Washington State is home to Itron, one of the world’s largest smart meter manufacturers and many leading edge smart grid companies.

Helps homeowners reduce energy expenditures
 Helps homeowners generate their own electricity and hot water by providing a 30 percent tax credit towards the installation of solar electric or hot water systems, and expands the credit to cover residential wind generators and geothermal heat pumps. Homeowners utilizing these technologies can reduce a household’s water heating costs by 50 percent.
 Consumers can also save up to $500 on their taxes if they install energy efficient products in their homes, such as energy efficient windows and high efficiency heating and cooling equipment.
 Provides new car buyers up to $7,500 to buy plug-in electric vehicles, which can achieve over 100 miles per gallon. According to a study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, we can electrify 70% of America’s cars, which would displace 6.5 million barrels of oil each day (50% of oil imports), and cut greenhouse emissions by an estimated 20%. In Washington State, the cost of powering a plug-in vehicle is the equivalent of 70 cents per gallon.
 For the first time, energy-efficient biomass fuel stoves are eligible for a consumer tax credit of $300. Sixty percent of wood pellet stoves on the market are manufactured in Washington state.

My opponent Don Benton:
 Opposed 2008 House Bill 2815 creating 25,000 green collar jobs
 Opposed 2006 Senate Bill 6508 to increase local production of biofuels
 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

Here are some facts about state of the health care from the Healthy Washington Coalition (www.healthywacoalition.org):
 There are roughly 593,000 Washington residents without health care coverage, including 73,000 children.
 Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon raised rates by 26% in 2008 for individual insurance plans and 16% for small group plans, which are mostly for small businesses with 50 employees or fewer.
 Health care costs for the typical household has risen six times faster than income in the last five years.
 An estimated 19,000 Washington residents file for medical bankruptcy each year. Three-fourths of them had health insurance at the time they were sick or injured.
 Since 1993, employer-based coverage dropped from 71% to 66% of full-time jobs in Washington.
 Nearly one-third of non-elderly Washington adults goes uninsured at some point in a two year period.
 Health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored coverage were $1200 higher in 2005 due to the unpaid cost of health care for the uninsured.
 More than a million people in Washington state- about one in four adults under age 65- are expected to spend more than 10% of their income on health care next year, according to a national study.
 Administration takes 30 cents of every dollar spent on health care.

Affordable Health Care solutions
I support the recommendations of the Washington Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access and the Health Insurance Partnership, which would provide low-cost health care options to all Washington residents.

I also support these principles of the Healthy Washington Coalition:
 Ensure secure, high quality and affordable health care to all Washingtonians.
 Ensure choice of provider and quality affordable health plans.
 Promote an affordable sliding scale for health care costs to ensure personal responsibility by all adults
 Share the cost for the health system and the responsibility for making the system work between individuals, employers and government.
 Care should be affordable for individuals and employers, including small businesses, and changes to the system should benefit those employers who provide quality affordable health care for employees.
 Encourage personal healthful behavior by providing incentives for preventative care and health education.
 Government should be a watchdog ensuring the health system is working and fair for individuals, employers, and providers; that health care remains affordable; and that there are high quality affordable health plans available.

My opponent Don Benton opposed these legislative efforts to provide affordable health care:
2008 Senate Bill 6333 establishing a citizens’ work group on health care
2007 Senate Bill 5930 providing affordable health care to Washingtonians
2006 Sub House Bill 2572 establishing small employer health insurance partnership program.

Affordable housing
I support the Housing Trust Fund and the Washington Families Fund, which are public-private partnerships that have helped many low income families find affordable housing.

Don Benton opposed 2008 House Bill 1359 creating an affordable housing program.

The biggest investment banks are failing because they have to book those losses. Even safe assets have lost billions of dollars in value. In less than two weeks we saw the five biggest bailouts in history: the world’s biggest insurer, with assets of nearly $1 trillion; two of the world’s biggest investment banks, with combined assets of $1.5 trillion; and the two giants of the mortgage industry, with assets of $1.8 trillion. The total bill so far is about $4.2 trillion- and there may be more coming.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department had to act because these failures threaten the stability of the global financial system. Each time another bank or financial institution is bailed out by the government, their financial obligations are absorbed by the U.S. Treasury. At the beginning of the Bush administration, total U.S. government debt was about $4.3 trillion. Two weeks ago it was about $9 trillion. After this it will be upwards of $13 trillion.

Guess who is going to end up paying that debt? Taxpayers will. In just two weeks, each American’s share of the national debt went from $30,000 to about $44,000. We owe much of it to the sovereign wealth funds of nations like China, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, which lack democratic institutions and could change their mind about the safety of these investments any day. I’ll bet you could think of some better ways to spend your hard-earned money.

The financial innovation of investment banks had very little oversight by regulatory authorities. Most Americans didn’t receive a single dime of the profits, but they got stuck with the costs when they failed. This is corporate welfare at its very worst.

You have heard conservative politicians say that the economy is fundamentally sound and that everything will be fine. That’s nonsense. They want to offer more tax cuts for the wealthy and more deregulation as the remedy. It won’t work: that’s how we got into this mess in the first place.

Deregulation allowed commercial and investment banks to invent ever more complex financial instruments. The investors that bought and sold these products made a lot of money, but all that changed when the underlying assets (including homes) lost value. When confidence in the stability of the financial system was shaken, that deepened the crisis and caused the ensuing financial meltdown.

Many of us suffered the effects of foreclosures, bankruptcies, and deflated house prices. The long-term consequences will be higher interest rates and higher Federal income taxes. These effects will hit hardest at about the same time baby boomers are retiring in huge numbers, our children will be entering the work force, and we’ll be facing a crisis in funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

This may be a national problem, but there are local solutions. What state-level policies could we pursue that would mitigate the effects?

 First, we need to do everything possible to keep people in their homes and restore confidence in the banking system. By focusing only on investment banks, the bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson addresses only half the problem. The financial meltdown will not end until we address the other half of the problem: homeowners facing foreclosure and bankruptcy.

 Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are owned by the Federal government, they need to provide low-interest fixed-rate mortgages to creditworthy homeowners facing foreclosure or an interest rate reset on adjustable rate mortgages. This will reduce borrowing costs and risks, make homeownership more affordable, reduce the inventory of unsold homes, and stabilize house prices. This in turn will stabilize the value of the mortgage-backed securities the government is taking over.

 Foreclosed and vacant homes should be turned over to community land trusts and resold at a discount to families and individuals who have lost their homes. Placing the land in trust and leasing the land back to homeowners reduces the house price significantly and creates permanently affordable housing.

 As for banking and the mortgage lending industry, we need to modify capital requirements- increasing them during economic booms to protect the financial system against incremental risk-taking, and lowering them during downturns to make credit more widely available when it is needed most.

 Government’s role is to foster useful innovation, limit greed and speculation, and protect consumers. They failed at all three. There should be stricter standards and improved oversight of the banking industry, so that lenders act in the best interest of borrowers.

 The Congressional bailout plan primarily helps Wall Street investors. Since falling house prices are the root cause of this crisis, rescuing banks will not work if we do not also rescue homeowners.

My opponent Don Benton opposed the following bills to protect consumers from mortgage scams and predatory lenders:
- Senate Bill 6381 established stricter fiduciary duties for mortgage brokers and required them to act in the best interest of borrowers.
- Senate Bill 6452 required full disclosure of interest rates and yield spread premiums.

Don Benton also routinely boasts of being the most prolific fundraiser in the State Senate. His list of donors includes Wal-Mart, the Pawnbrokers Association, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. Do you suppose that campaign contributions of over $6,000 from various insurance companies had anything to do with Senator Benton’s opposition to HB 2572, providing health insurance to small businesses? With over $20,000 coming from the banking and mortgage industry, is it any wonder why he voted “NO” on SB 6381, a bill aimed at requiring mortgage brokers act in the borrower’s best interest?

The Senator also routinely misses votes on legislation he doesn’t like. For example, he missed the vote on a 2005 House Bill establishing a homeless housing program; a 2006 House Bill expanding apprenticeship opportunities for high school graduates; a 2008 House Bill addressing the achievement gap for African-American students; a 2007 House Bill authorizing utilities to engage in environmental mitigation efforts; and a 2005 Senate Bill providing tax incentives for clean and alternative fuel vehicles.

Whom was Senator Benton fighting for when he missed a 2005-07 appropriations bill that contributed to public employees and teachers’ retirement funds, and a 2005-07 appropriations to allocate additional funds to homecare agencies to provide dental, vision and vacation benefits for their employees? Did Senator Benton’s support from the tobacco industry have anything to do with missing the vote on a Senate Bill enhancing enforcement of liquor and tobacco laws?

Whom was Don Benton fighting for when he launched his subscription-only legislative news website for registered lobbyists (which ultimately failed)? When state legislative ethics counsel Mike O’Connell warned Benton to “erect firewalls” between his legislative duties and business dealings, Benton refused to acknowledge the obvious conflict of interest. He signed the solicitation himself and referenced his legislative experience as reasons to subscribe to his service.

Whom was Don Benton fighting for when he accepted donations well over the $2,500 contribution limit as head of the GOP state party? Even members of his own party were embarrassed by his actions. King County GOP chairman Reed Davis said Benton left the party in “near chaos.”

It appears that while the senator was busy raising money for his perpetual re-election, the people of this state were left to fight for themselves.

Partial list of Senator Benton’s votes: Education
Supported 2003 Senate Bill 6059 suspending COLA salary increases for teachers
Opposed 2007 Senate Bill 6059 restoring COLA salary increases for teachers
Opposed 2007 Senate Bill 5841 enhancing early childhood education
Opposed 2007 House Bill 1051 expanding high school completion programs at community colleges
Did not vote on 2006 House Bill expanding apprenticeship opportunities for high school graduates.
Did not vote on 2007 Senate Bill tuition waivers for families of fallen veterans and national guard members
Opposed 2007 Senate Bill 1128 operating budget, which included:
 $1 million for construction of new K-12 schools
 $15 million for opportunity grants for low-income students to pursue training in high-demand fields.
 $60 million in special education funding
 $1.1 billion for additional classroom space including Clark College and WSU-V
 $22 million to expand the Early Childhood Education program to reach an additional 2,250 children
 $25 million to provide health coverage to an additional 38,000 children
 $1 million to Evergreen Schools for construction of a Health and BioSciences Academy.

Health Care
Opposed 2006 House Bill 2572 establishing small employer health insurance partnership program
Opposed 2007 Senate Bill 5930 providing affordable health care to Washingtonians
Opposed 2008 Senate Bill 6333 establishing a citizens’ work group on health care
Opposed 2008 House Bill 2687 providing mental health treatment and services
Opposed 2007 Senate Bill 5659 establishing family and medical leave insurance

Environment
Opposed 2008 House Bill 2815 cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating 25,000 green collar jobs
Opposed 2008 Senate Bill 6580 addressing the impacts of climate change
Opposed 2006 Senate Bill 6508 incentives to increase local production of biofuels
Opposed 2005 House Bill 1397 to adopt stricter California emissions standards for cars and trucks
Did not vote on 2007 House Bill authorizing utilities to engage in environmental mitigation efforts.
Did not vote on 2005 Senate Bill providing tax incentives for clean and alternative fuel vehicles.
Did not vote on 2006 Senate Bill on oil spill regulations.

Housing & other
Opposed 2007 House Bill 1359 creating an affordable housing program
Opposed 2008 House Bill 2687 providing affordable housing, housing for the homeless, and weatherization
Opposed 2008 House Bill 1128 providing adult day care and services to families, children and disabled
Opposed 2008 Senate Bill 6809 providing a sales tax exemption for working families
Opposed 2008 Senate Bill 6381 requiring mortgage brokers to act in the best interest of borrowers
Opposed 2008 Senate Bill 6452 requiring full disclosure of yield spread premiums

Don Benton’s other missed votes:
Did not vote on 2005 Senate Bill amendment for public employees and teachers’ retirement funds.
Did not vote on 2007 Senate Bill enhancing enforcement of liquor and tobacco laws.
Did not vote on 2008 House Bill addressing the achievement gap for African-American students.
Did not vote on 2007 Senate Bill providing for privacy protection for voter registration information.
Did not vote on 2005 Senate Bill providing dental, vision and vacation benefits for homecare workers.
Did not vote on 2007 Senate Bill regarding health insurance information for students.

Don Benton has the distinction of being the State Senator who accepted the most campaign contributions from corporate lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). David Carrier will be the only State Senator who did not accept campaign contributions from lobbyists and PACs. We don’t think corporate and PAC money will lead us where our constituents want to go.

Elected officials should represent voters- period. We hope you agree, and will take this information into consideration when you choose who will represent the 17th District. Send the message that we’re ready to get government to work for us again.

DON BENTON’S CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS $213,000
as of Sept. 1, 2008

TOTAL SPECIAL INTEREST CONTRIBUTIONS $91,000

BANKING total $20,000
WA Indepent Bankers PAC (Lakewood) 500
Money Tree (bundled contributions) 3,500
WA State Pawnbrokers Association 1,500
Pawn Exchange (Issaquah) 1,000
Payroll Complete Services (Keith Smith) 1,600
WA Assoc. of Mortgage Brokers (Edmonds) 500
Bank of America, Inc. 3,200
IQ Credit Union 1,400
Wash Mutual PAC 700
Sav Pac Wash. Fin. Lea. 400
PMSA WA State Pac 500
Credit Union Legislative Action 700
Boeing Employees Credit Union 1,300
Thomas Young, Regents Bank 1,450
Monte Schwartz, Regents Bank 300
Ken Kirn, Columbia Cascade 1,000
Russell Investment Group 550

INSURANCE total $6,000
Progressive Insurance Co. (Tacoma) 1,500
Premara Blue Cross 1,500
Regence Blue Shield 700
Aetna Insurance Co. 500
WMLA Pac 200
Pemco Insurance 800
Insurance Physicians (Seattle) 800

CORPORATIONS total $17,000
Philip Morris Company 700
Reynolds Tobacco Company (Winston-Salem) 500
Wal Mart, Inc. (Bentonville, AR) 1,500
Weyerhauser 900
AT&T 1,600
Motorola Inc. 250
T Mobile 800
Holland America Line 1,500
Thomas Mears, Holland Inc. 1,450
Glacier NW (concrete, building supplies) 1,600
Eli Lilly & Co. 200
Les Schwab, Inc. 250
Vancouver Toyota 200
MacFarland Cascade Pole & Lumber 500
Alan Webb Nissan 500
Vine Street Properties (McKinley) 1,600
White Pages.com Inc. 200
Big I 900
Kemper Holdings 1,000
Nutter Corp. 800

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES total $48,000
WA State Farm Bureau 800
WA State Dental PAC 700
WA Beverage Assoc. 1,600
WA Auto Dealers Assoc. 2,300
WA Software Alliance 350
WA State Farm Bureau 800
WA State Dental PAC 900
WA Education Association 1,600
WA Public School Employees 700
WA Affordable Housing 1,600
WA State Labor Council 200
WA Council of Fire Fighters 700
WA Taxpayer Assoc. 500
WA Organization of Vocational 250
WA Chiropractic Trust 1,400
WA Optometric PAC 1,100
WA Collectors Assoc. 1,600
WA VMA 800
Western WA Trial Lawyers 800
Central WA Lawyers for Working Families 800
Physicians EyePac (Seattle) 1,600
Farmers Employees PAC 800
MAC PAC 800
Puget Sound Pilots (Seattle) 1,400
Justice Pol. Action 800
Taseca Homes (Vancouver) 1,600
United Subcontractos Assoc. (Lakewood) 300
NW Sport Fishing Industries (Oregon City) 500
WSVMA 800
Justice PAC 800
Inland Northwest PAC (Spokane) 800
TPM PAC (Spokane) 400
International Union of Painters 1,400
Intl Union of Operators 200
Clark County Chiropractic Trust 1,000
Clark County Chiropractors 300
David Nierenberg- D3 Family Funds 2,900
Tapani Underground 300
Evergreen Memorial Gardens 100
Cam and Barbara Thomas, Underwood 2,900
Jeanne and Morris Bush 3,200
Brent McKinley, Vine St. Prop., Arlington 1,450
Bruce McCaw, Developer Bellevue 700
Yarrow Bay Development 500
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe (Auburn, WA) 800
Individual Chiropractors 2,100

My name is Cozette Tyler, and I am a single mother of four children. I am also a college student studying Political Science at Clark College in Vancouver Washington. I am happy to have this chance to share a bit about myself, and why I fully support David Carrier as our next State Senator.

David Carrier stands for our most important issues on both a state and global level. As a single mother, it is more than critical to me that my family have a fair shake; that someone is balancing the scales by promoting causes that really matter in my house hold such as better education, affordable housing and health care, as well as fixing our worlds changing climate.

These are very important issues within my home as I am sure they are within many American homes. I am aware that our country is in a state of economic uncertainty, and that alone is enough to shake the walls of the American family structure.

As a college student, I want to see jobs available for both myself and my children. I want to know that there will still be a home called earth for my grandchildren. I want to elect a candidate that will work hard to ensure a healthier environment for families of today and tomorrow.

As a parent, I want to be able to prove by example that hard work can and still does pay off. I want to offer my children a legacy that will exemplify the idea that they can rise above any hardship and strive for a better life.

The only way that I know to do this is to cast my vote for candidates like David Carrier, who understand just how vital a role the Democratic Party plays in the lives of our nation’s citizens, and who will openly work for change that benefits everyone.

I hope you’ll join me in voting for David!

Sincerely
Cozette Tyler
Voter, 17th Legislative District

During the Clinton Administration, 22 million jobs were added to the U.S. economy. During the Bush Administration, 5 million were added. There was a $160 billion federal budget surplus at the end of the Clinton Administration. There will be a $500 billion deficit at the end of the Bush Administration.

As a consequence of this sea of red ink, the national debt has doubled. Fully 75% of the $9 trillion national debt was created under the watch of 3 presidents- Reagan and the two Bushes. Each person in America now owes over $30,000 of the national debt, much of it to the sovereign wealth funds of foreign countries. Foreigners are buying up U.S. assets at flea market prices.

One job after another is being outsourced, and entire industries are being relocated to countries with cheap labor. Workers here in the U.S. are pressured to accept reduced wages and benefits, and this often includes basic necessities such as sick leave and health care coverage. Average wages and salaries have barely increased over the last 8 years, while the costs of food, energy, housing, and health care have skyrocketed. Our lower standard of living has undermined the fundamental strength of the economy.

In the midst of this crisis, President Bush presented a record increase in defense spending as part of a $3 trillion budget that would reduce the growth of Medicare and Medicaid and eliminate an array of domestic programs. At a time when we need to be creating jobs and investing in infrastructure, the President called for $1 trillion in tax cuts to people making over $450,000 per year. At a time when American families are struggling here at home, the President asked for nearly $1 trillion to continue the occupation of Iraq.

Military expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with huge tax cuts for the wealthy, caused massive budget deficits. Not so well known is the fact that ballooning federal budget deficits also contributed to the collapse of the dollar, and that in turn led to higher import prices, especially for oil and commodities. The Iraq war has also made the supply of oil from the Middle East much less reliable, and oil companies have passed along the associated “risk premium” to consumers in the price of gas.

So if you’re wondering why gas is so expensive, you can blame it on a combination of runaway government spending, record federal budget deficits, fiscal mismanagement, and the war.

What’s the solution? We need to create and support sustainable local industries that provide an alternative to foreign oil: wind and solar energy; biofuels that use local available resources such as wood waste, straw, and manure; energy conservation; and recycling of everything from paper, plastics, and metal to road and construction materials. Anything that helps to boost local employment, wages, and/or benefits will be recirculated back into the local economy and create even more jobs.

Employers should also be required to offer reasonable health care coverage to all employees, with costs shared by employer and employee. Widespread coverage would reduce premiums and medical costs and make our state more competitive in the global economy. Family wages and benefits and good working conditions attract high quality workers and businesses to our state, and provide incentives for higher education and training.

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