Category: Our Environment

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington State Legislature adjourns Sine Die, again (for real this time!)

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Hav­ing reached agree­ment on the specifics of an oper­at­ing bud­get, trans­porta­tion pack­age, and plan for delay­ing imple­men­ta­tion of last year’s ini­tia­tive to low­er class size, the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture today adjourned its third spe­cial ses­sion sine die, with exhaust­ed law­mak­ers and leg­isla­tive staff breath­ing a sigh of relief. The Leg­is­la­ture began its 2015 ses­sion a […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Revised transportation package clears Washington State Senate on bipartisan vote

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Moments ago, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate took yet anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant vote, this time con­cern­ing trans­porta­tion rev­enue. By an over­whelm­ing four-to-one mar­gin, the Sen­ate vot­ed to approve SB 5987, which would raise the gas tax and vehi­cle weight fees to pay for a long list of high­way projects, a short­er list of rail, bike, and pedestrian […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Department of Ecology, oyster growers cancel plans to spray neurotoxin in Willapa Bay

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Hal­lelu­jah! Via a news release sent by the Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy: Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions over the week­end, the Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy and the Willa­­pa-Grays Har­bor Oys­ter Grow­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (WGHOGA) have agreed to can­cel a recent­ly issued per­mit for use of imi­da­clo­prid to con­trol bur­row­ing shrimp. “One of our agency’s goals is to reduce tox­i­cs in our […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics

California’s experience proves Governor Inslee is right to pursue cap and trade

by Robert Cruickshank

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s bold yet sen­si­ble step to bring Wash­ing­ton State into the grow­ing North Amer­i­can cap and trade sys­tem is pre­dictably gen­er­at­ing oppo­si­tion from Repub­li­cans. State Sen­a­tor Cur­tis King, the Repub­li­can chair of the Sen­ate Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee, took to the pages of the Seat­tle Times to denounce Gov­er­nor Inslee’s plan. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for King, his attack on […]

Posted inBreaking News, Our Environment, Policy Topics

U.S. House passes ill-conceived bill to gut the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to designate national monuments

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Act­ing as if they don’t have any­thing bet­ter to do (and they cer­tain­ly do!) the Repub­li­can “lead­er­ship” in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives today engi­neered a vote on a bill that would gut the Antiq­ui­ties Act, leg­is­la­tion dat­ing back the ear­ly 1900s that allows pres­i­dents to des­ig­nate nation­al mon­u­ments. As Ken Burns and his team […]

Posted inElections, Live Coverage, Our Environment, Policy Topics

LIVE from Bellingham: Council candidates share their vision for Whatcom County

by Patrick Stickney

Here comes the home stretch of yet anoth­er elec­tion sea­son. As cam­paigns move into get-out-the-vote mode, vol­un­teers are phonebank­ing and knock­ing on doors, can­di­dates hope to make an impact on more civi­cal­ly active vot­ers by speak­ing at forums. While many of these just serve to engage the base and get a few more peo­ple to […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Our Environment, Policy Topics

House Republicans achieve Pyrrhic victory with passage of unconscionable farm bill

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Repub­li­cans in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives achieved a Pyrrhic vic­to­ry ear­li­er today with the pas­sage of an uncon­scionable, cru­el farm bill that they man­aged to pass with only a hand­ful of votes to spare after hours of acri­mo­nious debate. The Repub­­li­­can-backed pro­pos­al, which passed with­out a sin­gle Demo­c­ra­t­ic vote, pro­vides around $195 bil­lion in […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Healthcare, Live Coverage, Open Government, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning, Technology, World Commmunity

LIVE from San Jose: Ask the Leader!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Good after­noon from San Jose! Our morn­ing ses­sions are now over, and it’s on to our lunchtime keynote: Ask the Leader with House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Nan­cy Pelosi. This is for­mer (and hope­ful­ly future) Speak­er Pelosi’s third appear­ance at Net­roots Nation. She pre­vi­ous­ly took ques­tions at NN ’08 in Austin and NN ’10 in Las Vegas. I’m […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics

U.S. House passes bill to take decision on Keystone XL pipeline out of president’s hands

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

By a vote of two hun­dred and forty-one to one hun­dred and sev­en­­ty-five, the U.S. House tonight opt­ed to approve a Repub­­li­­can-backed bill that essen­tial­ly seeks to give Cana­di­an petro­le­um giant Tran­sCana­da final approval to build the Key­stone XL pipeline through the Amer­i­can Mid­west (and across the bor­der into Alber­ta). Nine­teen Democ­rats sided with two […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Series & Special Reports

B.C. Journal: Liberals hold telephone town hall to connect supporters to leader Clark

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

With less than one hun­dred hours to go until the polls close in British Columbi­a’s 2013 provin­cial elec­tions, par­ty lead­ers Christy Clark and Adri­an Dix are keep­ing busy sched­ules. As I report­ed ear­li­er today, Adri­an is spend­ing most of his Sat­ur­day in the Van­cou­ver sub­urbs. He was in Coquit­lam this morn­ing for the pan­cake breakfast […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Series & Special Reports

B.C. Journal: David Eby says challenging Christy Clark is like running against “a ghost”

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

British Columbi­a’s New Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NDP) may be lead­ing in the polls ahead of this Tues­day’s provin­cial elec­tion, but in order to actu­al­ly assume pow­er and become the major­i­ty par­ty in the B.C. Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly, the NDP has to cap­ture at least half a dozen rid­ings cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Lib­er­als or inde­pen­dents, plus hold onto […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning, Public Service

Senator Maria Cantwell on Sally Jewell: “I know that science will be her compass”

by Senator Maria Cantwell

Edi­tor’s Note: The fol­low­ing is the text of Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell’s speech on behalf of Inte­ri­or nom­i­nee Sal­ly Jew­ell, deliv­ered on the floor of the Unit­ed States Sen­ate ear­li­er today. (Jew­ell was con­firmed by a vote of 87–11). Video of the speech is avail­able on YouTube. Our thanks to Sen­a­tor Cantwell for shar­ing her remarks […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Service

President Obama picks REI CEO Sally Jewell to serve as the next Secretary of the Interior

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Great news from our nation’s cap­i­tal this morn­ing: At an event in the White House­’s State Din­ing Room, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma announced that he has cho­sen Wash­ing­ton’s Sal­ly Jew­ell to serve as the Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or. Jew­ell, fifty-sev­en, is cur­rent­ly the chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of Recre­ation­al Equip­ment Incor­po­rat­ed, bet­ter known as […]