2007 Session Review
2007 Washington Legislature Session Review
What an incredible year! The Sierra Club sets a pretty high bar for what we expect from ourselves and our state’s leaders and so far we have exceeded all expectations, particularly on climate change. We are committed to raising the public awareness about solutions to the threats to our planet and seeing excellent results. Strong leaders are emerging everywhere you look; from the state capitol to your own neighborhood, heroes are stepping forward.
Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Sen. Craig Pridemore are two such heroes. Under their guidance, the Senate showed bold leadership on environmental protection, from global warming to preserving Puget Sound. Here’s what Sen. Brown had to say about us:
“By building public support for environmental protection and helping elect environmental leaders to the Legislature, the Sierra Club has been instrumental in making it possible for us to pass strong environmental laws in Olympia, like the climate change bill this past session.”—Sen. Majority Leader Lisa Brown
Climate Change (SB 6001)—Our proudest moment so far this year was passing SB 6001, the major climate change legislation of the session. This bill sets into statute greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and sets an emissions performance standard for long-term utility contracts that coal plants cannot currently meet. This second provision helps reduce the proposed dirty coal plants in our state and prohibits us from purchasing coal energy from out of the state. This is a major win in fighting dirty, fossil fuels across the West.
New coal plants in Washington now have to capture and sequester their greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet the standard. This takes the responsibility for producing “clean coal” and places it squarely on the facility and its investors.
What makes this bill a special source of pride for the Club and its volunteers is that very few people thought it could happen at all. Many of our allies liked the idea but felt it was too much of a push while, at the same time, we felt that we had no choice. The climate is not going to wait for our timetables to bring more drastic weather.
Our original goal was to introduce the idea this session and pass it next year but during a late October meeting with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown in Spokane we saw an opportunity to move faster and we took it. Once the Senate showed strong leadership and a commitment to action, the Governor acted and announced her Executive Order (The Executive Order is the next big step and one of two major priorities you can read about on the page What Works & What’s Next). Not only did the Senate action induce the Governor into acting, we also passed the bill and Governor Gregoire signed it into law!
Transportation Goals (SB 5412)—The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has learned that transportation creates 69% of all greenhouse gasses in Washington and the Club is leading the charge to address this problem. After several years of debate we finally passed legislation that changes the state’s transportation goals to include environmental protections and shifts the emphasis away from moving vehicles to “moving people and goods”. Also included is language requiring the Department of Transportation to develop strategies and plans to reduce vehicle miles traveled. This last provision is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that come from the transportation sector.
Leave No Child Inside (HB 1677)—America’s children may have less opportunity to explore nature than ever before but we are working to turn that around. HB 1677, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously, establishes an outdoor education and recreation grant program to help get kids outdoors, especially at-risk and underserved children. The State Parks Dept. will administer the program and the final budget includes $1.5 million to get it started.
Fighting fire with toxics (HB 1024)—PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, have been used to retard flames in consumer electronic plastics, furniture, and mattresses for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, they have also been dangerously toxic just as long. With safer alternatives available it’s simply a matter of making the switch, something that firefighters support but chemical companies don’t. After several years of work, the Legislature passed HB 1024, and Governor Gregoire signed it into law, making Washington the first state in the country to ban PBDE’.
Saving Puget Sound (SB 5372)—SB 5372 establishes the Puget Sound Partnership, a task force with oversight to restore Puget Sound by 2020. It lays out some initial steps to get the restoration and clean-up started, but there will be much work in the future. Our biggest disappointment this session was that the House would not pass additional legislation to protect the Aquatic Preserve on Maury Island from gravel mining and shipping.
Cleaner air starts with cleaner fuels (HB 1303)—You are what you eat and we want our cars to eat cleaner fuels. HB 1303 will help reduce gas burned, reduce GHG emissions, and reduce toxic air pollution by helping Washington invest in alternative fuels like biodiesel. The bill passed both the House and the Senate, but it lacks a long-term source of funds to implement the policies.
$100,000,000 Greenbacks for a greener Washington—As our population grows so does the need and demand for more parks, trails, fish habitat and farmland. We are pleased to report that the final capital budget included $100 million for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, which is nearly double the amount the state has spent on this program in previous budgets.
What’s next?
RTID and Sound Transit II—RTID, the Regional Transportation Investment District is a transportation package of enormous scale yet it fails to maintain our existing roads and bridges. Sound Transit II is a proposed extension to Puget Sounds light rail system, linking downtown Seattle with large swaths of Bellevue, the Microsoft campus, and the greater eastside area.
As it currently stands, Sound Transit and RTID are headed to the ballot together this November. The problem with this proposal is that voters must approve both in order for either to be considered passed, forcing voters to swallow poison with their medicine. Voters will have to approve nearly 1500 miles of new highways and massive highway expansions in order to also approve 50 miles of new light rail. The expanded highway will encourage more vehicle miles traveled, thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions just when we’re trying to figure out how to reduce them. It’s also contrary to the provisions in the transportation goals bill that we just helped pass (SB 5412).
Ideally, we would have been able to set Sound Transit free from RTID during the session, but that was not possible. We did, however elevate the problems with RTID, which has caused the RTID board to scramble to try to improve the highway package. While compromises have been made the RTID package still contains so many egregious projects that we have to oppose the entire package and will work in the legislature to bring Sound Transit back as soon as possible.
This debate places us in what is becoming a somewhat familiar position. During the viaduct debate the Sierra Club raised again and again our concern that neither the rebuild nor the tunnel option did anything to adequately address the threat of global warming. In that fight we ended up standing alone in the environmental community while many either supported or claimed neutrality on the tunnel option. Our volunteer leaders pushed hard for more options like the “streets and transit” proposal. We organized in communities throughout Seattle, talking to our friends, neighbors, members, community leaders, decision makers and the media. Ultimately, we won and the city council recently committed funding to research the streets and transit option more thoroughly. While we don’t know the answer to this problem yet we do know that we can’t just build our way out of congestion and the challenges our growing population presents us while still stopping global warming. This isn’t a matter of choosing between the two, we must find a way to accomplish both.
We find ourselves in this role again on the RTID/Sound Transit debate. We continue to work closely with the environmental community despite our differences on these issues and appreciate the work our allies do. However, history has shown us that when times of great change are presented, usually someone has to be the first to step forward. The Sierra Club is proud to be the first to demand that the way we build our roads must address global warming adequately as well as helping move people and goods across Washington.