NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tag Archives: Pollution

Victory! Legislature sends Governor Inslee bill banning invasive fish farms from our waters

Excerpt: A bill that would phase out the farming of invasive, nonnative fish in Washington's waters and entirely prohibit it in the future has left the Legislature tonight and is on its way to Governor Inslee following a successful vote in the Senate.
Published at:8:27 PM on Friday, March 2nd, 2018
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment
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Oil train derails and catches fire near Mosier, Oregon, fulfilling fears of progressive activists

Excerpt: A great many peo­ple in the pro­gres­sive move­ment have been warn­ing that it would only be a mat­ter of time before an insuf­fi­cient­ly-secured coal or oil train derailed here in the Pacif­ic North­west. And now, it’s hap­pened: A mul­ti-car oil train derail­ment Fri­day in the Colum­bia Riv­er Gorge near Mosier sent up a mas­sive plume […]
Published at:5:27 PM on Friday, June 3rd, 2016
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Our Environment, Public Planning
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Washington State Democratic Party takes position opposing CarbonWA’s I‑732

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:7:05 PM on Sunday, January 31st, 2016
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Elections, Our Environment
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Washington State Labor Council votes to oppose CarbonWA’s Initiative 732

Excerpt: The Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil, AFL-CIO, a fed­er­a­tion of more than six hun­dred unions rep­re­sent­ing near­ly half a mil­lion work­ers in Wash­ing­ton State, announced today that it has tak­en a posi­tion for­mal­ly oppos­ing Car­bon­WA’s I‑732, which back­ers have adver­tised as a “rev­enue neu­tral” tax swap that would levy a tax on emis­sions of gas­es like […]
Published at:2:40 PM on Thursday, January 28th, 2016
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment
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CarbonWA’s I‑732 barely survives random sample check, Secretary of State reports

Excerpt: Car­bon­WA’s Ini­tia­tive 732, a sup­pos­ed­ly “rev­enue neu­tral” pro­pos­al to levy a statewide tax on car­bon emis­sions while low­er­ing Wash­ing­ton’s sales and B&O tax­es, has nar­row­ly qual­i­fied as an ini­tia­tive to the 2016 Leg­is­la­ture fol­low­ing a ran­dom sam­ple check, says the chief spokesman for Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman. In an ear­ly evening press release, Wyman’s […]
Published at:6:47 PM on Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Our Environment
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How would WA Republicans like it if *these* bills needed a two-thirds vote to pass?

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:2:32 PM on Monday, January 11th, 2016
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Economic Security, Legislative Advocacy
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President Barack Obama announces his administration has rejected Keystone XL

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:1:39 PM on Friday, November 6th, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Our Environment, World Commmunity
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Alliance for Jobs & Clean Energy will go to the ballot in 2016 with initiative to cap pollution

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:12:36 PM on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Elections, Our Environment
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Washington State’s Machinists take position opposing CarbonWA’s I‑732

Excerpt: 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, […]
Published at:1:02 PM on Friday, September 25th, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Elections, Our Environment
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Why I decline to sign I‑732

Excerpt: As I was walk­ing into my neigh­bor­hood Fred Mey­er store here in Seat­tle a few weeks ago, I encoun­tered a young woman with a clip­board. She asked me if I want­ed to sign the peti­tion for Ini­tia­tive 732, spon­sored by Car­bon Wash­ing­ton. I refused. It’s not that I’m opposed to rais­ing rev­enue by putting a […]
Published at:9:23 AM on Tuesday, September 8th, 2015
Written by:Robert Cruickshank
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Elections, Our Environment
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Washington State Legislature adjourns Sine Die, again (for real this time!)

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:5:07 PM on Friday, July 10th, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Public Planning
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Revised transportation package clears Washington State Senate on bipartisan vote

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:7:42 PM on Monday, June 29th, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Our Environment, Public Planning
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Department of Ecology, oyster growers cancel plans to spray neurotoxin in Willapa Bay

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:9:37 PM on Sunday, May 3rd, 2015
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Our Environment
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California’s experience proves Governor Inslee is right to pursue cap and trade

Excerpt: 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 […]
Published at:11:00 AM on Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
Written by:Robert Cruickshank
Categories:Core Encyclopedia Topics, Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment
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