Governor Gregoire’s Green Jobs and Climate Action press conference

We don’t have the video from this morning’s announcement by Governor Chris Gregoire, Employment Security Department head Karen Lee and Department of Ecology’s Jay Manning (and others), but I’m watching it now. Below are highlights. I’ll post and keep updating the same post: I know a lot of you are searching for information on this.

The first:
“Since I took office four years ago, we’ve been working hard to ready Washington state for a 21st century. And that 21st century for us is a green economy,” Gregoire said.

“It’s a future where a state is able to provide a platform for our uniquely innovative people to create and market new technology…. free of our total reliance on fossil fuels,” she said.

The critical steps they want to take, which she says will create thousands of jobs:
- Stimulate our economy now
- Reduce greenhouse gas pollution: “Within a span of 13 months, we had two 100-year floods,” she said, evidence of climate change.
- Promote energy independence

Update:
She said that the state already has about 47,000 “green jobs.” But not all of them started out green — many transformed. From agriculture — organic agriculture is a “green” job — to construction.

“Yesterday I submitted legislation to our Legislature to cap greenhouse gas emissions among our big energy producers and to create market incentives to drive the reductions in climate changing greenhouse gas pollution. We already know that this system of cap and trade … we already know it works. … it’s already working in 10 Northeast Atlantic states.”

“Now it’s time for us to set our course forward with our sister states that are part of the Western Climate Initiative.”

Update 2:
Gregoire said Congress has said they’re interested in a Cap and Trade system. “Let us be an example,” she said.

“Second, today I’m asking the Legislature to enact a tax exemption for a new generation of plug-in electric vehicles,” she said.

“Third, I’m asking our state building code council to improve our energy efficiency by 30 percent,” she said.

The fourth item she announced is a public-private partnership.

“We need to move quickly to prepare ourselves for a 21st century of green-collar jobs,” she said.

I’m now headed to turn this into the 11 p.m. Legislative Review. Check back in for updates in a bit.