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OLYMPIA–Back in February 2020, I met Puddles, Washington state's first mussel detection dog, and her handler, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Pam Taylor. A rescue dog from a shelter in California, Puddles, a Jack Russell terrier mix, was brought to Washington state in 2019 and trained to sniff out zebra and quagga mussels. The mussels are smaller than a thimble. In 2020, while working the boat check station on the Washington-Idaho border near Spokane, Puddles discovered i...
OLYMPIA–Several days ago, the Wall Street Journal issued a report about California's "soaring electricity rates." Average residential rates for investor-owned utility customers have surged by 72% to 127% over the past 10 years. About 2.5 million households in California are behind on their bills, averaging $733 in arrears. According to the Energy Information Administration, California has the second highest average retail price for electricity at $.22 per kilowatt hour. Fuel prices in C...
"The possibility of a global environmental apocalypse has been dominating headlines and exercises a powerful hold on the imaginations of millions of people," according to optimist and author Marion L. Tupy. Headlines of imminent catastrophe are resulting in public policy driving our nation and our state as well as many other western economies to the brink. OLYMPIA–The Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), passed in 2019, and the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) of 2021 form the architecture for t...
OLYMPIA–Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, and ranking Republican on the House Environment and Energy Committee, issued the following statement in response to a news conference held by Gov. Jay Inslee today where he blamed the oil industry for sky-high fuel prices in Washington state. “Washington state has the highest gas prices in the nation because of the governor’s cap-and-trade program that took effect in January. Governor Inslee’s new climate mandate, which is the most expensive of its kind in the...
As you read this, House Bill 1498, approved unanimously by both the House and Senate, is on its way to the governor. This is the bill I authored that would ensure our local fire departments are reimbursed by the state when they deploy aircraft for an initial attack on a fire. It seems like common sense to get on top of a brush, grass, or timber fire when it's small, before it blows up into a catastrophic wildfire. Small fire departments, such as in Asotin County where Noel Hardin is the fire...
OLYMPIA–Washington held its first carbon allowance auction on March 7 under the new cap-and-invest law passed in 2021. Results from the first auction were announced on March 14, in which industry participants and speculators bid on a limited number of "allowances" offered by the state. California implemented the nation's first multi-sector cap-and-trade program in 2015, which covers virtually its entire economy. Washington's Climate Commitment Act sets more aggressive goals than California. T...
Too many Puget Sound lawmakers never look beyond their grocery stores to understand the struggle of our farmers to keep those stores supplied. It's why Sen. Mark Schoesler, Rep. Joe Schmick, and I work so hard in Olympia to advocate for our fellow farmers, educate those in power who have no clue about agriculture, and why we fight against policies potentially devastating to agriculture. We understand the importance of our state's agricultural industry, the jobs they provide in Washington, and...
OLYMPIA–There are some hard-core Western Washington groups that want you to believe that if we breach Snake River dams, it will boost our state's salmon population and we can save the Southern Resident Orcas from extinction. It's the old strategy of if you repeat something long enough, people will finally believe you. Even though dam removal would be devastating to our state's power grid, agriculture, and vital river navigation of wheat and other products. Here's what they won't tell you. P...
