VANCOUVER -- At the conclusion of this year's Washington state
legislative session, Gov. Chris Gregoire said, "I think it will
go down as one of the most important environmental sessions."
And today, Gregoire signed one of the bills that will make it
so. Gregoire signed a bill that sets goals for reducing
emissions, sets an emissions performance standard for new power
plants and meshes with the climate-change goals the governor set
in an executive order issued in February. Gregoire, in a signing
ceremony in Vancouver's Water Resources Center next to the
Columbia River, said the climate change bill is a big step at
making Washington state an environmental stewardship leader. "It
signifies we're at the beginning and that others will follow,"
Gregoire said, "and that's what leadership is about." The bill
calls for: - Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants
to 1990 levels by 2020, to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035,
and by 2050 to 50 percent below 1990 levels or 70 percent below
the state's expec