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In the wee small hours - In Olympia, such a deal

2/18/2014

5 Comments

 
PictureSuch a deal, for scams and sinners
     In the dark of night, while most folks were sleeping - oblivious - a piece of legislation that only had its "first reading" in Olympia twelve days ago passed by a vote of 93-5. This little slip of a bill, a mere three pages, will kick the principles of justice and liberty as we know them closer to the proverbial cliff.

      That sounds mighty dramatic, maybe over the top.  What's this bill about?

Waal...  HB 2454 is a bill that paves the way for "water quality trading" in Washington State. Painted as accommodating and innovative, and dressed-up as so many bills are nowadays in predictable, wolf in sheep's clothing buzzwords like "voluntary" and "market-based," the legislature is setting up tables in the temple of environmental justice for the sale of Get Out Of Jail Free cards.  Instead of nabbing those who pollute, and correcting real problems appropriately, this bill says:


Trading programs allow facilities facing higher pollution control costs to meet their regulatory obligations by purchasing environmentally equivalent or superior pollution reductions from another source at a lower cost.

(and later...)

Specifically, the state conservation commission should examine watersheds in which total maximum daily loads have been produced, and assess whether there are potential buyers, or permit holders, and sellers of credit to support a water quality trading program consistent with the water quality trading framework developed by the department of ecology.
How convenient. Instead of confronting and solving water quality problems (and let's call a spade a spade here, bad water quality means POLLUTION, are WE right?) the Conservation Commission and Washington Ecology will be tasked with exploring ways to trade these sins away.  HUH?  Figure it out. Dense places that pollute the most can buy their way out of trouble by locking down large expanses of clean land, agriculture, or better still pay for trendy recreation and renovation projects whether they're useful or not. That would suit a lot of city obsessives, particularly the growth management lobby. The "restoration" industry will go for it, along with the land trusts, water trusts, and mitigation banks like this new one - all so anxious make sales. Lock-down land, grow bureaucracy, pick-up big contracts, and accommodate deep pocket polluters through perpetual extortion - what a deal!! Is that not what the EPA and 17 states have been selling?  It looks good in booklets, but it is what it is - typically out of proportion and not solving much.

Whether we need it or not, "environmental protection" is one whale of a lucrative business around here. The potential for corruption and exaggerated "environmental needs assessment" is real; that's obvious. WE ask - how much does this kind of thing achieve in making Whatcom County or Washington State a better place?  A cleaner place?  More productive, healthier?  And, how can greed be kept out of these institutionalized staff-driven goldmines? WA Commerce has been promoting regional TDR's (transfers of development rights) between counties to help grow cities that don't keep their own acts clean.

As things are already, good and decent stewards of healthy rural land find themselves thanklessly hobbled like lambs tied to stakes - cautioned not to turn a shovel of dirt, or farm without a plan.  It's the devil being spied on and watched over, having to obtain say-so first from the lairds and keepers. Is there no end to the scope and scale of this state's "environmental" lock-downs and the institutional coveting of ever-more private property?  Water quality - uh - pollution trades...  What a load of hypocrisy.

WE have reported on quite a few stories just like this in the last couple of years, like the abysmally vague and scientifically vacant "natural resources marketplace," the greedy interests that underpinned and promoted the DNR reconveyance, and how local watershed planning has been hijacked by a greedy local monopoly and the Puget Sound Partnership. There's little question that the growing web spun by bureaucrats and bankers (and the barking left) have no intention of giving up.  The road back has got to be guided by common sense.
5 Comments
childofww2
2/18/2014 12:08:34 am

Congratulations on staying awake and looking behind the veil that shrouded our lawmakers intelligence - only 3 voted against it?

Reply
WE Editors
2/18/2014 11:29:37 am

Ninety-three voted for this, and only five voted NO! Check out the Washington Votes website to follow who's backed different bills. Kudos to the Washington Policy Center for making this research site constantly up to date:

http://www.washingtonvotes.org/

You will have to paste that or type that into your browser.

Reply
Karl Uppiano link
2/18/2014 01:58:08 am

It infuriates me that the government that was supposed to /protect/ our natural rights is now quite arguably the greatest /risk/ to those rights. The leisure that was supposed to be liberated by this government protection is now being sucked up by our need to constantly bird-dog our once benevolent government.

Reply
WE Editors
2/18/2014 11:34:04 am

It was pointed out that WE neglected to explain something crucial. The WA Conservation Commission is not particularly known or responsive to the public. (Most folks have never even heard of this "agency.") Here's the scoop: "Governance of the agency is provided by a ten-member board with members drawn from conservation districts, other agencies and Governor appointees." Learn more about them/it online.

Reply
Zorro
3/5/2014 08:20:53 am

This proposed law, pushed by the Big E Environmentalist industry, is proof that they have played their hand well and are now progressing to the B part of their overall plan. (This is a massive Plan with many segments or letters to be gradually rolled out.)

With the Big E plan, no large buildings or parking lots will be built due to the tangle of regulations and strict oversite of land use and drainage etc. intended to make a no build footprint which envelops much of the lot. Perhaps one might be able to squeeze a small house on a very large parcel of land but that is only a ---perhaps. In hard reality, a large square footage building or subdivision is clearly impossible to place in one area. (Also Wetland areas in cities are a bother as they are an enemy of the density formula. Big E urban planners want to and brag about and will eventually receive awards and professional acknowledgement on the density they achieve. (Everybody wants to be a star it seems.) Yet, of course, cities must have these buildings and parking lots so they must be accommodated and here comes the trick.

Only the large profitable and wealthy corporations will be allowed to build on these so-called wetlands etc. if they just purchase, at great cost, another wetland in another area. Problem solved--even if they are in different watersheds. (Oh dear where did the science go when you mix watersheds that is not natural?)

However for regular citizens with dreams of individual homes, they will never be able to afford such luxuries unless a big developer builds your subdivision at great expense. So expect cookie cutter houses in cities and absolutely no houses in rural areas, or at least very few.

In the end of course, the present city residents, as they are now, are given special resident privledges to pollute, pollute, pollute, while overwhelmed rural residents are required by law to retain an immaculate and meticulous environment and even improve the land environmentally at their own cost. So at the end of this sorry saga, country residents become the secondary citizens while city residents are allowed the "pollution pass" with no takings of their land or rather, their lots for environmental reasons. Oh no. If that happened the environmental movement would be seriously challenged and the Big E must be careful to keep that from happening at least for now. City dwellers must not be disturbed and are encouraged to vote to push serious environmental takings of only rural properties (Under GMA) for public and private good. (Fish are sold for profit. It is a private industry.)

But beware dear city residents. In due time and further down in the Plan, these same takings eventually will be brought to the city, after all the court precedents and judgements are firmly in place against property owners. Then single family houses in the city will be viewed as inefficient uses of land and publicly harmful and that will be the end of suburbs as we know it today. You will be shaking your heads and moaning, "What have I done." Yet, all this must be done very slowly and the Big E is hoping you will not notice, until it is too late.

Of course, who will profit most in the end? Owners of city homes at first and ultimately the owners of large buildings or land in the heart of the city that will be used for apartments. These properties have long ago cemented over their wetlands and their price and profit will rise as these new large buildings must purchase developments rights to build. This is an easy way to make money by regulating your competition---called rent seeking, which is a business term.

So in the end, look to powerful property owners in the downtown core to profit immensely over all this. It is not really about environmentalism but rather sweet money honey. Isn't that always the story, after all?

This is the big Plan for the Big E. Pack your bags, you are moving to a big apartment in the city.

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