Drafter
Clerk 06/02/2008
Title
A MOTION relating to King County's use of biofuel blends in transit and fleet vehicles; mandating a report on the life-cycle and economic impacts of utilizing biofuels, and examining the efficacy of alternative climate change mitigation strategies for King County's transportation emissions sources.
Body
WHEREAS, the King County Climate Plan and Climate Report and the executive-proposed King County Comprehensive Plan 2008 update include policy goals for reducing King County's greenhouse gas emissions. As part of these goals, King County must collaborate with local governments in the region to reduce overall emissions to eighty percent below the year 2007 levels by 2050, and
WHEREAS, of the approximately 420,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent that the King County government is estimated to have emitted in 2003, approximately 96,000 metric tons were produced by transit buses. In total, transportation accounts for thirty-eight percent of total greenhouse gas emissions created by King County government operations, and
WHEREAS, hybrid and other new fuel-efficient technologies offer significant promise as a means of reducing vehicle emissions, including carbon dioxide, and
WHEREAS, in March 2006, King County Executive Ron Sims signed Executive Order PUT 7-5 calling for a substantial increase in the biofuel mix utilized by the county's diesel vehicle fleet, from five percent ("B5") to twenty percent ("B20"). King County currently utilizes the B20 biofuel blend, and
WHEREAS, biofuels have come under increasing scrutiny by some mainstream peer-reviewed science journals and other experts. The development and utilization of food-based biofuels might have created two unintended consequences. First, some biofuels may cause more net greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. Second, some biofuel production and usage may be linked to increasing worldwide food prices, and
WHEREAS, the United States Environmental Pr...
Click here for full text