Washington Climate Change Bill Accused of Not Being a Climate Change Bill

Among the country's most vocal advocates for fighting climate change is Washington's Governor Jay Inslee.

He talked about it in his inaugural address, when he announced his choice for transportation secretary and in the book he co-authored: "Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy." 

Inslee is also the man behind the state's climate change bill that passed through the state's Senate on March 26. However, the bill, which creates a work group tasked with generating recommendations by the end of the year, is being accused by some as not really an environmental bill at all.

"It's not really a climate change bill anymore; it's really a cost-benefit analysis of environmental actions bill," said Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, according to The Seattle Times. Ericksen is the chairman of the Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee.

This is not to say, however, that Ericksen opposes the bill. The senator says he looks forward to "taking a look at issues we haven't looked at before legislatively. What's the actual cost of these environmental programs on manufacturing, on agriculture ... are required to be examined," The Seattle Times quotes him as saying.

Ericksen publicly holds doubts on the reality of climate change; in fact, it was his panel that stripped the language of problems associated with it out of the bill. Then on Tuesday, his committee hosted Don Easterbook, an emeritus geology professor from Western Washington University, who spoke for an hour on the false claims of global warming.

"CO2 cannot possibly cause global warming," he said. "The reason is because there is so little of it. It is a trace gas. If you double nothing you still have nothing."

David Postman is a spokesman for Inslee who said encouraged others to let the bill speak for itself.

"The purpose of the work group is to recommend a state program of actions and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that if implemented would ensure achievement of the state's emissions targets."