By Don Jenkins, Capital Press

Washington state Democrats are fulfilling some of the hefty aspirations of the Green New Deal with their own climate-change package, one that would raise the cost of producing, processing and transporting farm goods while promising the “equitable distribution of benefits.”

To do that, the Democrat-dominated Legislature is considering bills to tax carbon, cap greenhouse gases, make all electricity renewable, mandate more biofuels in gasoline and diesel, and govern by “environmental justice.”

The Green New Deal, a resolution introduced in Congress last month by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., outlines a “10-year national mobilization” to make the U.S. entirely powered by zero-emission energy sources.

Like the Washington, D.C., version, the Washington state agenda has the twin goals of banishing fossil fuels and funding a bigger government to provide relief to as-yet undefined “highly impacted communities.”

Democrats and climate-change activists say action is overdue on both fronts because global temperatures and sea levels are rising and the poor are least able to adapt. Carbon dioxide levels are higher now than at any point in at least 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

By itself, Washington state’s effect on the climate would be at most infinitesimal, Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond said.

“Simply from a total carbon emissions point of view, Washington is tiny compared to the world at large,” he said.

Based on state, national and international estimates, Washington contributes less than 0.25% of the world’s greenhouse gases.

Still, Bond said he sees a practical side to the state leading on climate change: It could teach other states something about implementing policies.

“It’s not simply symbolic,” Bond said. “You have to learn how to do it.”