Mar 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Leah Beth Ward Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.

Elin Miller, a high-level administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency in Seattle, said Thursday she has gone from being a doubter to a believer

in the risks of climate change, and called on the

Yakima Valley to be among the nation's leaders in lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

"I've become someone who is sure she has seen its effects," Miller told a crowded Yakima Rotary Club luncheon at the Yakima Convention Center.

As evidence, Miller cited "pretty dramatic" coastal erosion in Alaska, one of three states she oversees as regional administrator for EPA Region 10, which also includes Washington and Oregon.

Appointed by EPA administrator Stephen Johnson in fall 2006, Miller has worked for the public and private sectors in pesticide regulation, crop protection and land conservation. She was also an executive at the Dow Chemical Co. between 1996 and 2004. Miller and her husband own a hazelnut orchard near Roseburg, Ore.

One of EPA's principal missions in 2008 is "confronting climate change and reversing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions," Miller said. Major manufacturers, including Caterpillar and John Deere, have recognized the threat and adopted programs to reduce their own emissions, she said.

In the Yakima Valley, Miller said, climate change will bring less snow, more rain and longer and more frequent droughts. Wildfires involving 500 or more acres are projected to increase to as many as 21 a year in the 2020s compared with about six per year in the 1970s, she said.

Milk production from a typical 1,300-pound cow could drop 2 percent by the 2040s and nearly 7 percent by the 2090s.

The Valley's burgeoning wine industry also won't escape the effects of temperature increases.

"Wine growers and makers will have to pay more attention to their famed microclimates," Miller said.

But climate change -- which Miller said is more accurate than global warming -- also brings opportunities. Solar and wind power in Eastern and Central Washington can make a sizable dent in carbon emissions while the region might also play a role in supplying feedstock oils for biodiesel production. Imperium Grays Harbor, the nation's largest biodiesel plant, is relying mostly on Canadian canola but is looking for sources domestically.

Imperium is especially interested in cellulosic ethanol, made from various agricultural wastes and native grasses. It holds promise because it yields more energy than conventional fuel ethanol.

"Perhaps their field of dreams is here in Yakima," Miller said.

Yakima's agricultural community is open to Miller's message about the need to confront climate change, said Ken Smith, an apple grower and former manager of Wilbur-Ellis, an agricultural supply company.

An active Rotarian, Smith coincidentally hired Miller some 20 years ago to manage what was then called the Western Agricultural Chemical Association, a crop protection group.

"I think there are more believers now than a year or two ago," Smith said. "There is more of a preponderance of evidence to believe that greenhouse gases are being caused by people."

--Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.