Press

Media releases

Inslee expresses support for Dingell-Boucher action on climate change

October 7, 2008

Today, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, expressed his support for the issuance of climate legislation released today by Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and hailed the action as an important sign that Congress will confront the challenge of climate change as early as next year.

Below is the statement of Rep. Inslee:

“First, I would like to thank Chairman Dingell and Chairman Boucher for their hard work in putting this bill together.  This draft is a promising step toward moving our national policy forward. To ignite the clean energy economy and slow the progress of climate change, America needs to set and abide by aggressive targets for carbon emissions reductions, protect American consumers and businesses, and level the playing field for clean energy technologies. This draft bill takes an important step toward this end.

“I appreciate the authors’ willingness to incorporate policy ideas that were developed by myself and fellow committee members. That is a good signal for future collaboration in discussing and further developing the ideas in this draft.  In particular, the committee worked with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and myself to incorporate our ideas for addressing unique concerns of energy-intensive industry (H.R. 7146).  Additionally, the committee has used language from my black carbon (H.R. 7250) legislation.  The bill includes strong incentives for decoupling of public utility revenues from power sales at the state level, of which I have been a strong advocate.  The bill also includes a low carbon fuel standard for transportation fuels as in H.R. 2215. I’m also pleased to note that the Baldwin-Inslee greenhouse gas registry has been included, as that is an important step forward in documenting and containing our current levels of greenhouse gas emissions. I look forward to working with the Committee to make sure the final bill includes strong incentives for renewable energy deployment that will help us meet the aggressive targets that science demands. 

“I’m appreciative of the committee’s transparent process and for allowing members the opportunity to provide input on the draft and look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Dingell, Chairman Boucher and the Committee on this bill and finding our way forward on a national policy toward climate change and the deployment of clean energy.”

To learn more about the Dingell-Boucher bill, please visit
the House Energy & Commerce Committee website on climate change initiatives at http://energycommerce.house.gov/Climate_Change/index.shtml