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Western Climate Initiative: Historic First Step, Essential Improvements Needed
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
(National Wildlife Federation)
Western Climate Initiative:
Historic First Step, Essential Improvements
Needed On Release of Western
Climate Initiative Plan
and (Sept. 23) – “Cleaning up global warming
pollution creates new jobs, moves us toward
clean energy and protects consumers and natural
resources. “Today’s announcement by
western leaders underscores the importance of
taking bold steps to combat global warming
pollution. We praise them for keeping this
issue at the forefront of policy makers and the
public at this critical time. “While the
fundamentals of today’s Agreement are sound, we
urge lawmakers to address a few significant
flaws that remain. “We are
disappointed that western leaders did not send
a strong enough signal that the interests of
the public need to come before the interests of
polluting industries. Today’s Agreement gives
significant discretion to individual states on
whether to require industries to buy their
pollution permits. Giving away the right to
pollute will undercut investments needed to
move to a clean energy future, and protect
consumers and the region’s natural resources.
“We have a
daunting task ahead to transition our region to
clean technologies, upgrade our transportation
infrastructure, and restore our natural
resources. A well-designed regional plan can
generate much needed revenue to support these
efforts. We urge Governors to put the public
ahead of polluting industries by not giving
away the right to pollute. “We praise
western leaders for tackling global warming
pollution from transportation, specifically the
dirty fuels that make up the lion’s share of
our problem. Unfortunately, elected officials
are delaying capping transportation fuels until
2015, therefore they must now improve tailpipe
standards, develop low-carbon fuels, and reduce
vehicle miles traveled. “Our region’s
natural resources – including the fish and
wildlife that sustain our recreation economy –
are on the frontlines of climate change
impacts. Today’s Agreement gets us on the right
path of protecting this legacy for our
children’s future.” For more information about the Western
Climate Initiative, and the impacts of global
warming in the West, visit http://www.nwf.org/westernclimateinitiative/
Implications for the Interior West