West Coast States and BC to Link Climate Policies The governors of Pacific coastal U.S. states and a Canadian province official on Monday vowed to collectively combat climate change by coordinating polices that place a price on greenhouse gas pollution and mandating the use of cleaner-burning fuels. The governors of California, Oregon, Washington and the environment minister of British Columbia, Mary Polak, gathered in San Francisco to commit to working together to coordinate efforts with the hope of stimulating a clean-energy economy in a region with a combined gross domestic product of $2.8 trillion. California and British Columbia already have placed a price on greenhouse gas emissions - through cap-and-trade and a carbon tax, respectively - and have also already adopted clean fuel standards. "We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change and we are the last generation who can do something about it," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said. Under terms of the agreement announced Monday, Oregon and Washington's governors are committing their states to move forward with similar policies, even though the legislatures of both states have denied previous attempts to adopt cap-and-trade. It was yet another climate-change related agreement with other states and nations for California Gov. Jerry Brown. In the past year he has inked non-binding deals with Chinese provinces for better collaboration on science and technology, linked the state's cap-and-trade market to Quebec, Canada's and signed on with northeastern states to increase electric vehicle infrastructure. Brown conceded the fact that alone, these states can't do much to change climate change. But he hoped the collaborations would gain momentum and scope. This is global. So, if it's only Oregon, Washington, California and British Columbia, nothing's going to happen. You got to get everybody," Brown said. You've got to get China, you're going to have to get India. You have to get Texas and Alabama ...  The deal stems from the work of the Pacific Coast Collaborative, a group meant to organize climate change and clean energy policies in a region with 53 million people. Washington's Inslee supports a statewide cap on carbon-fuel emissions, among several ideas to get the state closer to reaching goals set in 2008 to cut global warming pollution. Still, getting bipartisan support for a cap-and-trade program in Washington state will be difficult. Former Gov. Chris Gregoire aggressively pushed for and failed to get lawmakers in 2009 to approve a market-based carbon trading system. Inslee is currently leading a bipartisan legislative work group created this year to recommend strategies to tackle climate change. Two Republican lawmakers in that group have said they need to see what the economic impacts of those strategies would be. Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, said before the announcement Monday that he was frustrated that the regional agreement could undermine the work of that bipartisan process. "This seems to be a symbolic gesture that undermines that process," he said. In Oregon, efforts to implement cap-and-trade have met a similar fate. Lawmakers there failed to pass such a measure in 2009. Environmentalists in that state applauded Monday's announcement as good sense.