Washington State Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroups (CLEW) Meeting, July 17, 2013

Following is a brief overview of the July 17, 2013 meeting of the Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup’s (CLEW) meeting written by Brandon Housekeeper, Government Affairs Director, Association of Washington Business.

During the meeting, members of the CLEW group selected a  facilitator, to help them with managing their meetings, as well as produce a final report with recommendations (assuming there will be any).  The group selected Triangle Associates of Seattle, led by Bob Wheeler.  The group made the decision after interviewing five consultants in person during the meeting.

The rest of the meeting was focused on the first deliverable by the consultant, SAIC, creating a list and evaluation of the approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Washington.  For a complete listed of the strategies identified by SAIC, see the attached document.  SAIC noted in the meeting that there were five objective criteria to create the list of 22 programs, and that the criteria will be used to further refine and evaluate the list.  The criteria included:

  1. What is the volume/cost of GHG reductions;
  2. Has the program been considered a success;
  3. Is the study comprehensive in its examination of potential economic effects;
  4. Where the study is not applicable to Washington, can it be adjusted to be representative of Washington; and
  5. Does the review of a program examine potential interaction between initiatives, reviewing overlap in strategies.

I would encourage members to take a close look at the strategies identified, as well as the criteria being used to evaluate the strategies, and let us know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.  For those that missed the CLEW meeting, here is a link to the TVW video of the meeting: http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2013070038

Finally, there was a brief update provided by Ecology on the status of the Climate Science update.  The Department highlighted several studies they are reviewing, including the IPCC’s latest update, as part of its review.  Based on the timeline of the update, it wasn’t clear as to whether or not information from that update will be available before the CLEW is expected to finish its work.

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Brandon Houskeeper, Government Affairs Director
Association of Washington Business
T 360.943.1600 / T 800.521.9325
M 360.870.2918/ F 360.943.5811
PO Box 658, Olympia, WA 98507-0658