Monday, October 28, 2013 Seattle PI
A trio of West Coast governors and a Canadian premier on Monday signed a “Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy,” described with great hyperbole as a comprehensive and far-reaching “strategic alignment” to promote clean energy and curb climate change.
The states of California, Oregon and Washington, together with British Columbia, would constitute the world’s fiftieth largest economy in a mythical “Ecotopia.” By “joining forces,” tweeted Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, “We intend to design the future, not wreck it.”
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark: She signs climate Action Plan with West Coast governors, while boosting location of liquid natural gas export terminals up and down the B.C. Coast.
The action plan announcement said that California and British Columbia will maintain their existing carbon-pricing programs and respective clean-fuel standards, while Washington and Oregon move to adopt similar programs.
British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak told The Globe and Mail that Washington and Oregon will soon move to a carbon pricing system similar to B.C.’s seven-year-old carbon tax.
Inslee has a task force on climate change at work. It held a packed public meeting last week in Seattle.
Cross-border agreements are nothing new, and do not always live up to the highfalutin’ rhetoric of signing ceremonies and news conferences.
A much-touted oil spill cleanup plan of the late 1980s served mainly to clean up spills on the coffee table in the ante room of the B.C. premier’s office in Victoria.
But the politicians were waxing eloquent on Monday.
Read the Pacific Coast Climate Action Plan Here