Gregoire going to Denmark for climate conference

The overseas jaunt raised questions this week from minority Republicans and other critics skeptical about global warming — especially at a time the state is in a budget crisis. But Gregoire’s chief of staff Jay Manning says the trip is key to the state’s economic recovery by being present at an international gathering where “green energy” companies are present and Washington can show it is a place where energy-innovators can thrive. “Our thinking has evolved … from the environmental threat to shifting to the economic opportunity. That is one reason she is going. There are a number of Washington businesses that will be there and a number of businesses we want to become Washington businesses,” Manning said in an interview. The trip is sponsored by the Georgetown Climate Center, which operates out of the Georgetown University law school and came into being a few years ago at the behest of activist states like California and Washington, according to Manning. The center and a nonprofit Chicago group, The Climate Registry, are splitting the expenses for Gregoire and two staffers, Janice Adair of the Department of Ecology, and Keith Phillips of the governor’s Office of Financial Management, Manning said. For more on this story, see Friday's Olympian. Source:theolympian.com/