KEXP Presents Mind Over Matters; Sustainability Segment: Rebecca Ponzio and Sasha Pollack

this is diane warren your host on the sustainability segment of mind over matters and katie x p seattle ninety point three of them and on the web add k e xv died already my guests this morning are rebecca puhl and ceo iowa campaign director in fashion palette climate and clean energy campaign director for the washington environmental council the washington environmental council as a member of the environmental priorities coalition a network of over twenty leading environmental groups in washington state for this year's twenty fifteen washington state legislative session the coalition chose to priorities the carbon pollution accountability act an oil transportation safety now rebecca and such are here today to tell us how these priorities feared and to discuss the next steps in washington state to address while transportation safety and climate change welcome to evolve thank you would you like to begin by saying a few words about the environmental priorities coalition serve their priorities coalition was established because environmental groups in washington realize that during the legislative session their priorities were being pitted against one another

and they thought it would make good sense for them to come together decide on today for environmental priorities they would all work on so that they would have a better chance of success during the legislative session that's been the model for over a decade now and we've found more alas it's been a much more successful model than previous why did the environmental community choose to focus on oil transportation safety now in the carbon pollution accountability act for the twenty fifteen legislative session both of these issues are urgent while we're working to prevent new terminals that we have more oil coming into our state we are at hand oil trains the same type of oil trains that we've seen the rail explode coming through downtown seattle we have barges carrying crude oil down the columbia river for the very first time in in puget sound as well and we are seeing the effects of climate change already we have heat waves

we fires so these issues are here and now and we need to solve than focusing on oil transportation safety valve what were the key elements of the original bill favored by the environmental community so this bill why is developed to address the changes in how crude oil is coming into our state what type of cruel is coming in and the arrests that we see from well trains and wales felt this included increase transparency for the public to understand what's actually happening protections for our waterways that are here risk adequate number of rail inspectors and an update to our state's programs to prevent prepare and respond to oil spills and how did the bill fair and the session whether oil industry was opposed to this bill from the very beginning and they work hard to weaken it in the end the final bill

retained if some of the elements of the original bill including some piece of public disclosure financial responsibility rail inspectors but big gaps remain for the safety of our state around puget sound protections and the funding a sustainable funding source would you say more about the politics behind why the deal with weakened so the question about the politics being a narrow safety bill that passed the oil industry has a grip on the legislature and their grip is nonpartisan and its far reaching so in the end the bill that passed that had the oil industry winning and the public losing the public is not safer because of this bill yes there are steps forward in terms of public disclosure in terms more rail inspectors in terms of planning those are important things but it does not make a safer

and the oil industry's grip on the legislature resulted in that what would you say is most positive about the bill that passed i would say the bill to take this step forward in understanding what's happening in our state in terms of the type of oil the amount of oil that's coming are seen how it's coming in it's takes a step forward to provide a one time funding source to do some planning that is needed and what is that funding source that is around a barrel tax so originally before the bill passed we were taxiing or will coming in only five marine vessels that was expanded to include rail that's a good expansion it reflects reality it's not the full need it did not increase the attacks to provide a sustainable funding source nor does it tax pipelines which are about twenty four percent of the cruel cunning interstate so that is a

gap but it's a step forward but this bill although it took those steps it does not make her state senate from well what the recount bill did was it looked at the issue comprehensively so it looked at what type of oils coming in now how is that coming in and because the bill was weak and it's a lot more piecemeal in terms of the steps forward to there are big gaps on protections for puget sound there big gaps on sustainable funding to continue to evolve our system there are steps forward on public disclosure but we need to take many more steps so it was kind of it piecemeal approach to what's actually needed first aid what exactly is required in terms of the public disclosure in the bill that did pass what happened is right now we have a system in place and they there's a advanced notification of transfer

wale that advanced notification is not public it was expanded though to include rail not just marine vessels and the public disclosure peace is a consolidated website wade information aggregated around how the whales coming in and what type of oil and how much oil's coming in that interracial be aggregated put on the website at the ecology so that people can start seeing the trends and dish an alley in terms of disclosure first responders and local governments now have more access to information and they did have before the bill passed so what states are now being taken to fill in the gaps left by the legislation well if you're talking about the twenty sixteen legislative session to be anna's that feels like ten years from now there's a lot going on right now we have terminal proposals with public

participation opportunities happening now in grays harbor and end the columbia river in vancouver all of these terminals would equal over a million barrels of oil coming into our state if they get implemented yandow hundred fully loaded crude oil trains coming in every week he would be a dramatic change in what we're seeing so the fight now is really to stop this increase in whale and stop these terminal proposals which tell us about the standup twelve campaign started to legitimately yeah so then senator well campaign is addressing this risk that we have right now the safety issues that we talked about the well trained that are already here are working set improve safety and fundamentally stopping the increase well

infrastructure so that we don't have in place for many more generations forward a dependence on that will that is posing oil spill rests and explosions an impact our communities sustainable oil which can be founded standard oil that are largely is a campaign fighting for our future fighting to protect their communities and waterways against the risk of an the proposals that the oil industry has to create really a thoroughfare for pacific northwest those involved in the stand up twelve campaign it is a large coalition organizations and communities that span across washington and we're again and beyond we're working closely with tribal nations we're working closely with businesses and labor organizations and the maritime industry and people who just care about their community

so you mentioned that the twenty sixteen session seems a long way away have you started thinking about what you might want to do legislation lies and the fight is now in the terminals so that is what we are focusing on i'm diane warren and my guest sarah that the pun stil while campaign director and such a polar climate and clean energy campaign director for the washington environmental council our topic is environmental legislation in the twenty fifteen washington state legislative session and then steps to address oil transportation safety and climate change and you are ten to the sustainability segment of mind over matter isn't mr howard k e x e many point to the fm and on the web next we know it that's gone now and talk about the carbon pollution accountability act what were the key elements of the carbon pollution accountability act that was favored by the environmental community so governor is lee introduce the carbon pollution accountability act last december for the legislative session that is just ending in order to hold

polluters accountable we already have limits in statute set by the legislature that require us to limit and reduce our carbon emissions our greenhouse gas emissions this bill would have made those limits binding and required entities that produce large amounts of greenhouse gas to purchase a credit for each ton emitted and reduce that amalgamated over time it would also have produced because of the cost of those credits over a billion dollars in new revenue every single year and i think were all very aware of how acutely washington needs new revenue right now and this bill as proposed would have used that money to pay for education transportation and to reinvest in disproportionately impacted communities and how they'll fare in the legislature the bill had several hearings and passed through the house environment committee but unfortunately because of the whale industry pressure on the legislate her which protected status quo which benefited their

bottom line you did not move forward this legislative session the voices in the political spending of the western states petroleum association and its members were able to block clean energy progress on a number of fronts including the whale transportation safety work that rebecca was talking about but we feel strongly that the tide is turning that we see every day fierce local opposition to wail in coal terminals overflowing hearing rooms in olympia advocating for things like the carbon pollution accountability act so we're getting there that it's a tough opposition we've begun alluding to this but what were the biggest disappointments overall in regard to addressing climate change in the twenty fifteen legislative session so other than some very minor wins we were blocked from passing any positive environmental legislation this year the oil industry as i said was extremely active the transportation package in particular which had a number of really positive things in it that we feel very strongly about and fortunately at the end of the day pitted two tools for cleaner

air transportation choices in public health against one another by requiring a choice between a clean fuel standard which would reduce carbon honor a transportation fuels and funding of bike pedestrian and transit projects so the clean fuel standard is out of this well the clean fuel standard is not necessarily about what has happened is the transportation package as past said if governor in sleek chooses to implement a clean fuel standard which he believes it is within his authority to do all of the money that is set aside in that transportation package for alternative transit bikes ted bus project would move to a different account and be used on road spending which is a difficult choice obviously would you say a few words about the successes for climate change for the few that there were here we did fight back and prevent all attempts to weekend initiative nine three seven which is the people's clean energy initiative which is every legislative session there are attacks

working to weaken outlaw we've seen that law reduce our carbon emissions in washington state more than any other piece of legislation or initiative that's been passed so we feel very good in continuing to successfully defend that we also feel like success was found in the fact that we saw an incredibly diverse group of voices showing up and speaking out on these issues including health faith business labor try and social justice groups this is a new situation and it's remarkable to see that number and not diverse of groups speaking out on issues like the curve and push and accountability act but we know that that and more is what it's gonna take in washington to win against the oil industry in the long term would you say a few words about the transit funding that path so there was some transit funding in the transportation package which is the first transportation package that's been passed in over almost a decade which raises the gas tax by eleven and a half cents and it's

approximately seventy three million dollars a year to begin with and two dozen seventeen ramping up to about ninety three million dollars into the multi modal account it's actually not from the gas tax but it's from an additional fee on commercial vehicles by it the additional piece that was good for public transit that was passed in the legislature but it's not tied to any money yet is the approval of sound transit three to be able to go to the ballot so that voters in the puget sound area can vote to approve funding package to fund that third piece of sound transit so what are the next steps now for people who want to address climate change working at the state level the sea aim groups i just mentioned laborer social justice environmental business health faith tribes they're coming together and looking at options to move climate policy forward outside the legislature including the possibility of a ballot initiative we're working through the

alliance for jobs in clean energy which can be found at jobs clean energy wired dot com to determine what policy works best for washington to reduce carbon emissions and hold leaders accountable would you say more about the alliance for jobs in clean energy who is involved and what precisely are doing at this absolutely so at this point we have a steering committee made up of representatives of those types of groups that i named and additionally we have over a hundred partner organizations that have signed on in support of the alliance this summer we are i'm working to build our coalition by doing listening tours throughout the state gathering pledges are i believe in washington pledge which you can find out that website which encourages people to stand up for the washington they want to see where our asthma rates are higher than the national average where sustainable jobs are the wave of the future and where we move forward for a clean energy economy and do what we need to do to have a livable future for our children were working to identify what policy works best for all of those different groups and

moving forward in a way that in the fall we can potentially begin to prepare to gather signatures for a ballot initiative in twenty sixteen would you speak about how the alliance for jobs and clean energy is addressing environmental justice and equity issues one of the things i'm most excited about are related to who's involved in the alliance for jobs in clean energy is the number and diversity of social equity and environmental justice organizations that are involved and burying gauge on policy design and working to make sure that whatever we implement doesn't additionally impact goes disproportionately impacted communities who are already seeing the impacts of climate change more severely and very rarely are even contributing the amount that the average washingtonian as much less those heavy polluters that we're making sure are going to be held responsible so groups like got green puget sound sage washington can one america

after the asian pacific islander coalition and health center and a lab outside the latino community find community to community these are groups that are very engaged in this work have written our communities of color for climate justice mission statement and values statements that we hold very close to the center of our policy making of the alliance for jobs in clean energy which talks about both if revenue has created from this whenever mechanism is used to hold polluters accountable that some of that money will be returned to the communities that are most impacted there's hope for increasing employment in those communities and also that any mechanism that is used itself doesn't disproportionately impact communities you're tuned to the sustainability second of mind over matter is and t x t seattle ninety point three of them and on the web add k e x key data archie i'm diane hein and my guests are rebecca ponzi

old oil campaign director and sasha pollack i know in clean energy campaign director for the washington environmental counsel our top because environmental legislation in the twenty fifteen washington state legislative session and next steps to address the world transportation safety and climate change would you say more about the initiative you're planning to put foreign well at this point we don't know what that can look like that or we're going to spend the summer researching and listening to folks around the state and listening to those various groups to determine not just a policy that they can work four but of policy that works for them and currently their signatures being gathered for i seventy two which is an initiative for a carbon tax and washington state to what your thoughts about ai seven thirty two years as a promising approach we feel that while the intentions behind curtain washington who is behind by seven thirty to release strong and right on which is bringing the power of the people to address

climate change in the face of inaction by are leaders they're process has not an ideal they've put forward a policy that was crafted by only a few people and are now working to build a coalition to support that policy in contrasts the alliance is working to build a call issue and that represents a broad set of washingtonians and through that coalition craft a policy that they can work to get past we're committed to ensuring that if something goes to the ballot in twenty sixteen it is both viable and reflective of what washingtonians want and we're not sure they're seven thirty two careers those hurdles so do we have the prospect of having two initiatives on the ballot in twenty sixteen we are committed to not having two initiatives on the ballot in twenty sixteen and we're hopeful that as the process continues we will work together with the backers of my seven thirty two to make sure that one successful ballot initiative is on than two thousand sixteen ballot i see so from your preview it could it turn out to be a carbon tax or could turn out to be something different depending on how things develop yes it's their additional environmental

legislation of note in the twenty fifteen washington state legislative session you would like to mention one of the reasons that we were come together in the environment a priority is as i said at the top of the show is to fight back bad bills that are continually being put forward in a really unified way and there were a hundred and five bills opposed by the environmental priorities coalition as of last week at the session is still going on or i'm never count is changing very slightly still in only five of those passed a pretty remarkable track record it hasn't been a great year for the environment through capital projects we didn't get a lot of the funding we wanted but there were a few bright spots including that there was a prohibition against the use of land acquisitions for puget sound recovery that was removed which is really good news flood plains by design was funded the busy world creek wilderness was funded and our clean energy fund which is a really good resource for energy efficiency and job creation was funded at forty point four million

dollars so there were some bright spots there how would you compare the environmental funding in this year's legislative session compared to previous years it certainly isn't higher levels that we've seen in the past in many cases it's relatively comparable to the last time around but there are some pieces that permit saying our reliance on moscow which is our state's toxic cleanup find is really unsustainable that's been used to fund a lot of things other than toxic cleanup right now it's in some ways being used as kind of a slush fund and that ultimately hurt her state's ability to cleanup toxic sites and we didn't see any additional successes in that area the sheer you mentioned that there were five bills that passed that you're against what were those girls there was our water sewer district bill that passed that we were against a renewable natural gas bill that we are opposed to and then the pieces of the transportation package the past what is your focus likely to be for the twenty sixteen session i know you feel that it's far away but you must have started to think a little bit about it

good question the environmental prairie's coalition comes together in the late summer and early fall to discuss kind of what are the salient issues obviously these two issues aren't going away anytime soon so there very well may be additional next steps to moving them forward that being said we're not to see a dramatically different legislature in twenty sixteen so it's unlikely that we'll see a different result unfortunately in through the legislative process which is why we're making efforts to move forward on other facets of this work additionally there's lots of other priorities out there for the environment including tax a clean up and he inferred an all out of other wildlife and natural places area as water quality things like that and they're maybe priorities that come to the forefront that are really ripe for addressing at that point in time clean energy energy efficiency electric vehicles things like that which may impact the climate and whale issues tangentially but have another piece to them as well so looking back over the

history of the environmental party's coalition what is your sense of how successful of them on this year is can a bit of a disappointment but looking long term i think that the environmental priorities coalition has required us to look more holistically at washington's environment and how things impact one another and requires groups with very differing mission statements to work together to further everybody's causes and to build strength among themselves and i think in that way it continues to be very successful we are only as successful as their bills that we can get through but there's a lot of bills that we pushed back as i said that it would have been extremely detrimental to washington's environment and those successes should be celebrated as well what's the message you'd like to leave our listeners with stay tuned keep working on these issues just because a legislative session is wrapping up doesn't mean that our work is done in fact we have the ability now to turn a lot more attention towards other pieces of the work that may not be an olympian but are

just as important as the legislative work i would just add a importantly both of these issues extend beyond olympia by design essentially on their loyal issue in terms than the terminals we have the opportunity in the next six months to engage on decisions for whether or not washington puts in place these terminals that would result in a dramatic increase in oil and similarly on addressing the solution side for climate we have an opportunity and the next six to twelve months to engage the public on saying guess the solutions that goes away beyond libya will thanks so much for being here in beirut for having us you were just listening to a backup on sale i'll campaign director and sasha pollack climate and clean energy campaign director for the washington environmental council for more information check on the

web at stand up to all while dot org and jobs clean energy debi at a dotcom again that stand up to oil dot org and jobs clean energy debbie at a dotcom the sustainability segment of mind over madness program you were just heard will be on the screening archives section of katie at these website at atx feet out or achieve for the next fourteen days in addition sustainability seven interviews are available as podcasts along with caveats fees music podcasts go to k x p about a largely click on demand and then podcasting i'm diane hein thanks for listening and be sure that an end at the sustainability segment again next week and listener powered ninety point three fm and k e x key battle it