Tag: Pollution

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

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

by 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

by 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

by 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

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

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

by 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

by 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

by 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 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

by 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

by 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”

by 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 inEconomic Security, Our Environment, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

LIVE from Seattle: Huge turnout for final scoping hearing on Gateway Pacific Terminal

by Andrew Villeneuve

This after­noon, the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy, and What­com Coun­ty (the co-lead agen­cies) are hold­ing the sev­enth in a series of scop­ing meet­ings to deter­mine how to best pro­ceed with an envi­ron­men­tal impact state­ment for the pro­posed Gate­way Pacif­ic Ter­mi­nal and Custer rail­road spur at the Wash­ing­ton State Convention […]