Hargrove, Hatfield applaud the passage of bill to reduce green house gas emissions, create green jobs in state

OLYMPIA — The Senate gave a green light to a bill limiting green house gases in Washington while at the same time creating a comprehensive jobs growth initiative to increase the number of green jobs to 25,000 by 2020.

On the Senate floor, Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, urged his fellow Senators to approve House Bill 2815 because of its potential to create good jobs in rural areas that have demonstrated a strong interest in developing green economies.

“In years past, I’ve stood on the Senate floor and said that they only good tree is a horizontal tree. Well, guess what? Everybody finally agrees with me. Because the substitution language in this bill suggests that we will get more benefit from carbon sinking by cutting trees and putting them into wood products than we do by using cement and concrete and different sources of building materials that take a lot more carbon to produce,” Hargrove said. “What our community has done is chosen to be a kind of center for green energy and our community has taken advantage of being in the forefront of this changing economy instead of just trying to ignore what is coming.”

Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, also supported the passage of the bill.

“This could be a tremendous boost to our coastal and southwest Washington communities. It’s critical we take advantage of opportunities created by the new, green economy,” Hatfield said. “It’s important to remember that timber is the existing green economy. The two can definitely go hand in hand.”

Hargrove says questions about whether climate change is occurring have been answered.

“I think the debate is pretty much over. That this particular issue is going to move forward so we can either be part of moving with that to help our industry and our rural areas actually benefit from our change to this green economy or we can sit around and watch it go by.”

Return to Sen. Hargrove's home page

Return to Sen. Hatfield's home page