68% of 651 likely February 2023 special election voters interviewed from January 26th-30th for NPI by Change Research said they were concerned about tree and canopy loss, while 30% said they were not. Only 1% were not sure.
Category: Our Environment
Posted inPolicy Topics
Biden-Harris administration reportedly plans to approve Willow oil drilling project in Alaska
Environmental groups have campaigned against what the Sierra Club has described as “a climate disaster waiting to happen.” A change.org petition opposing Willow had drawn 3.1 million signatures and an estimated 1.1 million unique letters have descended on the White House.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Senator Maria Cantwell weighs in against ConocoPhillips’ Willow Arctic drilling project
The potential devastation to Arctic ecosystems, from climate damage, “is irreversible and irresponsible to future generations,” said Cantwell. “Oil companies already have record profits and access to drilling rights on millions of acres of public lands which they should be using to meet our current fossil fuel needs.”
Posted inPublic Service
Senator Maria Cantwell: A workhorse for the people and the Pacific Northwest in Congress
Cantwell, sixty-four, is not one of the usual suspects seen on networks’ Sunday morning talk shows or shouting over talk radio. She gets stuff done by mastering details, quiet work with colleagues and by serving on a trio of A‑list Senate committees where legislation is put together.
Posted inPolicy Topics
U.S., Canadian officials act to rescue rainforests in Alaska and British Columbia
The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially reinstated the Clinton-era National Roadless Rule in Southeast Alaska’s vast seventeen million-acre Tongass National Forest. On the other side of the border, British Columbia’s Premier David Eby announced protection of 75,000 hectares of the Incomappleux Valley.
Posted inPolicy Topics
House Republicans vow to “unleash American energy” as big oil pipeline spill hits Kansas
The pipeline, owned by TC Energy, carries up to 600,000 barrels a day of heavy oil from the tar stands of northern Alberta to Cumberland, Oklahoma. This isn’t the first time it has ruptured.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Net pen aquaculture in Washington’s waters must end, Commissioner Hilary Franz orders
“We, as a state, are going to do better by our salmon, by our fishermen, and by our tribes,” said Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands. “Commercial finfish farming is detrimental to salmon, orcas and marine habitat.”
Posted inPolicy Topics
Logging of British Columbia’s old growth forests has declined, but critics say provincial government is still allowing harmful clearcuts
British Columbia’s government proudly announced this week that logging of old-growth forests in the province, once nicknamed “Brazil of the north” for its vast clearcuts, has declined to a record low in the past six years. Not low enough, critics responded.
Posted inElections
King County conservation futures levy is receiving solid support, NPI poll finds
In the aggregate, 57% of voters surveyed this week for NPI by Change Research said they had voted for King County Proposition 1 or would be doing so, while 27% said they had voted no or would be doing so. The levy appears headed for passage.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Vice President Kamala Harris promotes clean school bus grant program in Seattle visit
Five school districts in Washington State will join 384 others in receiving funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to buy new electric school buses, the Biden-Harris administration announced during a special event held at Lumen Field.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Pacific Northwest grapples with an increasing number of wildfires as summer’s end nears
The skies above many areas of the Pacific Northwest grew smokier Saturday as the number of wildfires plaguing the region increased in number and severity, leading to a fresh round of highway closures and property evacuations with only days left until the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Republicans reaffirm their tight embrace of fossil fuels during a sweltering summer
The summer of 2022 has seen a disconnect between Republican politicians of the South, Midwest and Mountain West, and the sweltering, drought-stricken states they represent in Washington, D.C.
Posted inEvents
NPI at Netroots Nation 2022: Talking youth activism, plants with Brian Wingbermuehle
In this seventh installment of NPI@NN (2022), NPI’s Caya Berndt spoke with Brian Wingbermuehle, the youngest Democratic committee member for St. Louis County, about the challenges facing young progressive activists and protecting plants from climate damage.
Posted inPolicy Topics
“For the benefit and enjoyment of all of the people”: Denali-inspired reflections on the necessity of conservation’s future in Alaska
National parks, once derided by interests bent on resource extraction, have been a huge blessing for Alaska, supporting a robust tourism sector and ensuring that wild places like Denali remain as unspoiled and breathtaking as they were in bygone eras. Yet more areas of The Last Frontier still await protection from development.