2009 Agenda for Effective Environmental Stewardship
by
Todd Myers, Director, Center for the Environment
& Brandon Houskeeper,
Policy Analyst
January 2009
As legislators and the Governor grapple with the economic challenges in Washington state, it is a good opportunity to reassess our environmental priorities to ensure that we are receiving the most environmental benefit in a way that truly promotes job creation and prosperity. Washington Policy Center's 2009 Agenda for Effective Environmental Stewardship offers five proposals that prioritize projects with guaranteed environmental benefit, creating personal incentives to reduce greenhouse gases and conserve and harnessing the knowledge of millions of Washington residents who know best how to take steps toward sustainability.
The Agenda includes five proposals that are effective and efficient:
• Develop a personal incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a revenue-neutral carbon price and offering investment tax credits to promote creativity and innovation.
• Give school districts the flexibility to make building improvements by removing the costly and ineffective “green” building mandates.
• Allow local jurisdictions to craft local and appropriate approaches to low impact development.
• Increase funding to open thousands of miles of salmon habitat by removing stream barriers on Department of Transportation projects.
• Energize the market for voluntary green energy purchases by allowing utilities to earn profit on those sales and count voluntary purchases toward the I-937 renewable energy targets.
These ideas can help ensure that even as the economy takes center stage in policy priorities, we continue to make progress in our efforts to improve environmental stewardship.
Read or download the 2009 Agenda for Effective Environmental Stewardship (pdf)
