Erik Edmund Poulsen (born August 3, 1964) is the former Washington State Senator and Washington State Representative from Washington's 34th Legislative District, a district that includes West Seattle, Vashon Island, and Burien. Before getting elected, he served on the staff of Les Aspin, former Member of Congress and U.S. Defense Secretary, and Wisconsin Governor Tony Earl. Poulsen served from 1995-2002 in the House, where he was Chair of the Energy, Technology & Telecommunications Committee. In this role, he led efforts to expand telecommunications and broadband access in rural Washington and is widely credited with derailing Enron's legislative scheme to deregulate energy markets in Washington State. He was the only freshman Democrat appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee and was placed in a leadership position on the House Education Committee. In 2002 Poulsen was appointed to the Senate, where he served as Chair of the Water, Energy & Environment Committee, Democratic leader of the Senate Capital Budget Committee, and member of the Senate Transportation Committee. His crowning achievement in the Senate was working across party lines to broker the historic Columbia River Agreement in 2006, which helped end the decades-long impasse over water rights on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. He also became a leading voice for grizzly bear recovery in Washington's North Cascades wilderness. Poulsen was named 2005 Legislator of the Year by Washington Conservation Voters, which wrote: "Long an advocate for clean and affordable energy, Senator Erik Poulsen had an opportunity to deliver on this and other issues in 2005, and he took full advantage. Senator Poulsen was the prime sponsor of the High Performance Green Buildings legislation, one of the environmental community’s priorities. Success of that bill makes Washington the first state in the nation to require state buildings, schools and universities to be built and certified as high performance green buildings. As a result, our state will save energy and water, we will improve student learning and employee performance, and these buildings will be operated more cheaply. Senator Poulsen was successful in pulling together bipartisan support for this legislation, a key to its success. As Chair of the Water, Energy & Environment Committee, Senator Poulsen was also instrumental in shepherding the Clean Cars bill through the Senate. This legislation adopts California’s strict car emission standards, and as a result, will reduce cancer- and global warming-causing auto emissions, increase consumer choice for new cars, and save