InvestigateWest (https://www.invw.org/category/environment/)
Reporting on the past, present and future of the environment in the Northwest.
Aided by clear Democratic control of the Washington Legislature for the first time in years, environmentalists scored big victories – of historic size, especially on climate-change – but also suffered a few significant setbacks at the just-concluded Washington Legislature’s session. Big Oil and the insurance lobby had an influence on the process.
A bill in the Washington Legislature (HB1579) would give state Fish and Wildlife agents far more power to fight armoring of Puget Sound seashore by seawalls and other environmental insults along the shoreline.
The Washington Legislature is considering whether to require use of more climate-friendly motor vehicle fuels. Although Washington collects and processes biodiesel – an alternative fuel made partially of vegetable oil or animal fats that has a distinctly lower carbon impact than traditional diesel – most of this renewable resource is shipped out of state because Oregon, California, and British Columbia have all passed legislation requiring progressive reductions in the amount of fossil fuel allowed in gasoline and diesel.
A sweeping array of Washington legislative proposals to counter climate change have their best chance to pass into law in 2019 than at any time in recent years. But it won’t be easy for majority Democrats and Gov. Jay Inslee to get all they want in the 105-day session that began last week. InvestigateWest outlines current issues on the docket, including measures to help critically endangered orcas and salmon and green-oriented revisions for housing codes.
Mixed environmental results marked the whirlwind 60-day session of the 2018 Washington Legislature, which brought a few environmental firsts but also some significant losses on climate change that go beyond their inability to pass a carbon tax.
A deadline for truckers who serve the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to reduce air pollution by switching to cleaner trucks is delayed nine months as the drivers stage a walkout to lobby port commissioners. The ports are also putting up $1 million to guarantee loans for drivers who want to upgrade. But the drivers say they need a lot more financial help to make the switch.
Environmentalists and industry representatives are battling in Olympia over whether to ban chemicals used widely in fast-food wrappers and found in some communities’ drinking water that may cause various health complications. If the bills are passed, Washington will be the first state to regulate “perfluorinated chemicals”.
Short-haul truck drivers who pick up and deliver containers at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are organizing a walkout Tuesday to protest a proposed April 1 deadline restricting port access to allow only newer, cleaner-burning diesel trucks. Independent drivers who own their trucks and contract for work one load at a time say the cost of upgrading to cleaner vehicles will put many of them out of business. The drivers are mostly immigrants from East Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, according to the Northwest Seaport Alliance, an agency formed in 2015 to merge the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. A flyer distributed late last week calls on independent drivers to attend a meeting of commissioners from both ports Tuesday. At the meeting, Seaport Alliance commissioners are set to decide whether to adopt the new April 1 deadline for their self-imposed, decade-old commitment to cleaner-burning trucks.
Even with Democrats in charge of both houses of the Washington Legislature and the governor’s mansion, the 2018 legislative session is far from a sure-fire win for environmentalists. Climate, water use, oil spill prevention and more are being discussed. Can anything significant pass?
Long-stalled efforts to better protect Seattle’s tree canopy got a boost from a recent executive order by the mayor, and a key city council member says he will try to pass a stronger tree protection ordinance by next spring.
With the world struggling to understand the ramifications of climate change, acidification of ocean waters driven by the change threatens oysters, clams and other shellfish grown by the nation’s largest shellfish producer. Can five generations of shellfish farming continue?
