OLYMPIA—The Association of Washington Business, Washington state’s chamber of commerce, issued the following statement today regarding the EPA hearing in Seattle on greenhouse gas emissions:

“AWB has long advocated that a federal approach to climate change policy is much preferred over a state-by-state patchwork of conflicting policies that puts Washington state businesses at a competitive disadvantage with other states,” said Grant Nelson, AWB governmental affairs director on climate change issues. “The proposed changes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions would create higher operational costs for industries, higher costs for goods and services for consumers and threatens the availability of good family-wage jobs.

“While AWB prefers a federal approach, we believe that Congress, not EPA should enact a national approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Congress is better positioned than EPA in representing the interests of citizens nationwide, guarding against further harm to our already fragile economy and job loss,” he said.

“We need to ensure that costs are minimized and benefits are maximized by making available an accurate economic impact analysis of future policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” added Nelson. “We all know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be expensive, but how Congress decides to act could make or break our economy of the future, and could mean the difference between job growth and job loss.

“Businesses in Washington state that are already performing better than national performance averages need to be provided credit for the significant financial investments in emissions reduction technologies, and provided assurances that they will not be forced to make further reductions ahead of companies located in other states.”


About the Association of Washington Business
Formed in 1904, the Association of Washington Business is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association, and includes more than 6,600 members representing 650,000 employees. AWB serves as both the state’s chamber of commerce and the manufacturing and technology association. While its membership includes major employers like Boeing, Microsoft and Weyerhaeuser, 90 percent of AWB members employ fewer than 100 people. More than half of AWB’s members employ fewer than 10. For more about AWB, visit www.awb.org.