Maria Cantwell

Suppose an industry could profit by filing a lawsuit judged to be thoroughly without merit. That’s pretty much what critics say the Bush administration let the U.S. timber industry get away with. Now eight members of Congress from the Pacific Northwest are asking Congress's investigative arm,  the Government Accountability Office, to look into the deal.

It’s an enormously complicated story that I detailed for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. But essentially it comes down to this:

The U.S. timber industry filed charges against the Canadian timber industry in international trade courts. The Americans alleged the Canadians were getting unfair government subsidies.  The Americans lost at nearly every turn. But the U.S. timber industry – as it increased costs to American consumers – was bleeding the Canadian timber-cutters dry. How? With tariffs that boosted the price of Canadian timber on this side of the border.

Then, facing the prospect of endless appeals by the Americans, the desperate Canadians -- who had seen mills go dark and were starved for cash -- agreed to a really unusual deal, as international trade pact settlements go: The Bush administration offered to send back to Canada the $5 billion in tariffs collected -- so long as the Canadians agreed to then send $1 billion back across the border, with most of it going to the U.S. timber industry or to non-profit groups with ties to the U.S. industry.

If the reports we're hearing about U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's trip to China this week are accurate, it's another reminder of how badly the Clinton-Gore administration botched the Kyoto Protocol.

[caption id="attachment_3613" align="alignright" width="160" caption="The globe-trottin' senator herownself"][/caption]

Remember that the idea coming out of Kyoto among American negotiators was that the U.S. could invent a lot of technology to reduce emissions, and then sell it to the developing world. When the Senate unanimously rejected the treaty, though, research and development of greenhouse-friendly energy technologies -- predictably -- did not take off in this country.

But apparently it did in China. According what Cantwell told participants at a green-tech conference in Shanghai, 650,000 of the 800,000 jobs related to solar energy worldwide are in China. Oh, well, that's one opportunity missed for the United States.

Overall, though, the tone at the conference was that if Americans can be assured that China will crack down on violations of intellectual property rights, the two countries can make beautiful technology together, according to a dispatch by Elaine Kurtenbach of the Associated Press. Said Cantwell:

Technology exchange and intellectual property protection are wrapped together. It's safe to say we have a lot of work to go. ... If we can deal with these intellectual property issues, it's huge. Hundreds of thousands of jobs can be created in both countries.

Now, keep in mind that as she spoke, it's a fair bet that somewhere on the streets of Shanghai, someone was selling pirated copies of Inglourious Basterds.

Staying healthy is growing even more costly for Washington residents. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has approved rate increases of 17 percent for RegenceBlueShield, 13 percent at Group Health and 18 percent at Lifewise Health Plan. Only customers of Premera Blue Cross saw their increase limited to 6 percent. Those numbers are averages. There are outliers, such as Terry Naughton of Quilcene, who faces a 40 percent increase and concludes: "We need a public plan." Kyung M. Song's story in the Seattle Times today shows why health-care reform seems more likely in D.C. now than it has for years. Song offers up Seattle resident Gail Petersen, whose family of five will see her $1,400-a-month bill go to $1,700. She likens what's happening to price fixing: "I would love to see insurance companies have a little competition." Last we heard, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, who is on a key committee in the health-care debate, was still waffling on whether she supports a publicly funded option for health care insurance - a position she previously had endorsed in the state Legislature.