Reported by Staff

WASHINGTON D.C. -  Bill Ritter joined two other democratic governors on Tuesday in telling a Senate Committee “that efforts to curb global warming and spur the development of cleaner sources of energy have created jobs and new businesses in their states, a trend that could expand nationwide if Congress passes federal legislation.”

According to the governors, Colorado, New Jersey and Washington have implemented measures to achieve reductions in the gases blamed for global warming and standards requiring a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources.

Not surprisingly, their view was not shared by the all state leaders testifying Tuesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, including North Dakota’s Republican governor and a Democratic state legislator from Arkansas.

“If there is a lesson…for other states and the nation as a whole, it is that good energy policy and climate policy can energize the economy and help create good-paying private sector jobs,”  Ritter told the committee, although he did not volunteer that he supported the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill. The Governor used the town of Pueblo to illustrate his point, describing how it has evolved from an old steel town to a center for wind turbine production, with the arrival of European turbine manufacturer Vestas.

For her part, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Washington has nearly doubled its goal of 25,000 new “green” jobs by 2020 — and accomplished just within the last two years. The workers include architects who design energy-efficient buildings, venture capitalists investing in new technology, and farmers growing the next generation of biofuels, Gregoire said.

While not having anywhere near the level of clean energy resources of his Colorado and Washington counterparts, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine told the committee that his state has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent and wants to construct offshore wind farms offshore. He echoed the other governors in saying that leadership at the national level is needed to create an energy future the country is seeking.

Governor John Hoeven of North Dakota countered that the climate change legislation under consideration would cause job losses in his oil-producing state. He pointed out that it has already put a damper on new technologies for oil and natural gas extraction.

Arkansas state Democrat John Lowery brought up a common refrain from many politicians in the central part of the country — namely that while the climate change bill may create green jobs for the Northeast and West Coast, it would do harm to middle America. He essentially told lawmakers that coming down hard on oil and gas developers may be popular in Washington, but in his state, they are, along with chemical companies and farmers, integral to their communities.

The Senate panel’s top Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma commented, “As I’ve stated before, cap-and-trade benefits the coasts at the expense of the heartland.