washington

By William J. Kinsella Seventy-five years ago, in March 1943, a mysterious construction project began at a remote location in eastern Washington state. Over the next two years some 50,000 workers built an industrial site occupying half the area of Rhode Island, costing more than $230 million—equivalent to $3.1 billion today. Few of those workers, […]

By Andrea Germanos A group of 13 youths have filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington for breaching its constitutional and Public Trust obligations. Why? Failure to act on climate change. In their suit (pdf), filed Friday in King County Superior Court, the plaintiffs, aged seven to 17, say the state, Gov. Jay Inslee, […]

By Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky Bill McKibben is right. Last summer, the co-founder of climate change organization 350.org penned a Rolling Stone article titled How to Tell If Your Reps Are Serious About Climate Change. One way to tell, said McKibben, is if “[t]hey understand natural gas could be the most dangerous fuel of all.” A new […]

By Justin Mikulka On Jan. 29, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee rejected a permit required for Tesoro-Savage to build the Vancouver Energy oil-by-rail facility, the largest such project in the nation, at the Port of Vancouver, along the Washington-Oregon border. The governor explained the basis of his decision, which followed a several year long process, in […]

By Brett Walton State of the State speeches are where governors sketch their legislative priorities and report on the overall health of their dominions. The state of the state is almost always “strong” and water issues are occasionally mentioned. Below are summaries of the governors’ references to water, climate and the environment. This post will […]

Washington state regulators denied a water quality permit for a major coal export terminal Tuesday, dealing a possibly lethal blow to the project. The Washington Department of Ecology denied the permit for the Millennium Bulk terminal project, finding that the proposed terminal would have caused “significant and unavoidable harm” to the nearby city of Longview. […]

Judge Hollis Hill ruled Monday that the youths who sued the Department of Ecology for failing to take action on climate change can again move forward, now with a constitutional climate rights claim that adds the state of Washington and Gov. Jay Inslee as defendants. The court granted the youth’s request “due to the emergent […]

Monsanto is facing yet another lawsuit over its alleged negligent handling of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a banned and highly toxic group of chemicals that the company manufactured decades ago. But this time it’s not another city suing the biotech giant—it’s an entire state. Highly toxic PCBs have been found throughout Washington state, with more than […]