Tag: Climate Crisis

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Left Coast leaders fiercely denounce Trump regime’s climate-sabotaging executive order

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Aban­don­ing Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma’s noble efforts to bol­ster our com­mit­ment to car­ing for the Earth, our com­mon home, Don­ald Trump today signed an exec­u­tive order today that scraps the nation’s Clean Pow­er Plan, try­ing to undo one of the most impor­tant steps tak­en in recent years to com­bat the cli­mate cri­sis. The move was met […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Progressive Ideas We Need: Funding a clean energy future through pollution penalties

by Greg Evans

Editor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics

Washington State Democratic Party takes position opposing CarbonWA’s I‑732

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, dur­ing the mid­dle day of its 2016 win­ter meet­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty went on record as opposed to Car­bon­WA’s I‑732, join­ing the Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil and IAM’s Dis­trict Lodge 751 in the no camp. I‑732 is a com­plex tax swap pro­pos­al that would levy a car­bon tax while also reduc­ing sales […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

How would WA Republicans like it if *these* bills needed a two-thirds vote to pass?

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Any­one who has spent time attempt­ing to under­stand the pol­i­tics of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty knows that Repub­li­cans spend an awful lot of time lis­ten­ing to (and tak­ing their cues from) mil­i­tant, right wing ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman, who has become obsessed late­ly with gut­ting Wash­ing­ton’s cher­ished tra­di­tion of major­i­ty rule and replac­ing it […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

President Barack Obama announces his administration has rejected Keystone XL

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Flanked by Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma announced today that his admin­is­tra­tion has — after a lengthy and repeat­ed­ly delayed review process — reject­ed oil giant Tran­sCanada’s appli­ca­tion to build the Key­stone XL pipeline across the U.S.-Canada bor­der. “Now, for years, the Key­stone [XL] Pipeline has occupied […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics

Alliance for Jobs & Clean Energy will go to the ballot in 2016 with initiative to cap pollution

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Excit­ing news to share today: The Alliance for Jobs & Clean Ener­gy, of which NPI is a mem­ber, has announced that it will be launch­ing an ini­tia­tive to the peo­ple for 2016 to cap emis­sions of pol­lu­tants that have giv­en our plan­et an increas­ing­ly bad fever. The ini­tia­tive will appear on the Novem­ber 2016 statewide […]

Posted inElections, Our Environment, Policy Topics

Washington State’s Machinists take position opposing CarbonWA’s I‑732

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A cou­ple weeks ago, our Pres­i­dent, Robert Cruick­shank, wrote a lengthy blog post explain­ing why NPI can­not sup­port Car­bon­WA’s I‑732, a statewide ini­tia­tive spon­sored by econ­o­mist Yoram Bau­man that attempts to cre­ate a new tax on car­bon diox­ide emis­sions and use the rev­enue to low­er oth­er tax­es. This past week­end, the Wash­ing­ton Coun­cil of Machin­ists, which […]

Posted inLive Coverage, Technology, World Commmunity

NN15 Panel: People Power: Energy, Electricity, & Climate Justice

by Rennie Sawade

Dirty fos­sil fuel util­i­ties are oppos­ing pro­gres­sive change, rais­ing rates and killing the plan­et, but peo­ple across the coun­try, led by youth and First Nations activism, are tak­ing back pow­er. Cli­mate hawks and eco­nom­ic jus­tice activists are work­ing togeth­er to make our pow­er grid and pol­i­tics clean­er, and fight­ing for more afford­able and equi­table energy […]

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 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 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 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 […]