News Maury Island Bill Stripped
posted by on March 29 at 12:23 PM
Sen. Erik Poulsen’s (D-34, West Seattle) bill to stop Glacier Northwest’s from expanding its mining operation on Maury Island passed out of the House committee yesterday, but only after an emotional fight (in the Dem caucus) stripped the bill clean.
A devastating amendment offered by Rep. Al O’Brien (D-1, Mountlake Terrace) stipulates that if the commissioner of public lands (Doug Sutherland, who wants to keep Glacier on Maury Island) isn’t able to find comparable mining land for Glacier by November, 2007, the company can expand its operations as planned.
Supporters of the bill, however, are happy that it even made it out of the House Committee (it was in the Select Committee on Puget Sound—a new committee that oversees environmental issues), and they are crossing their fingers that the bill will be strengthened back to relevance on the House floor and/or in conference with the strong bill that Senator Poulsen passed out of the Senate.
However, bill sponsor Poulsen tells me that’s not likely. “The chance of it making it out of the House at all, much less with its teeth put back in is pretty slim.”
Senator Poulsen, who represents Maury Island, sounded bitter about the defeat: “Glacier got to a few key legislators [Rep. O’Brien and Rep. Larry Springer (D-45, Kirkland)] to make sure the bill never made it out of the House in tact. This is the classic story of a huge multinational corporation with unlimited resources against a tiny community that doesn’t have political muscle.”
Opponents of the bill, like lobbyist Steve Gano, argued that preventing Glacier from expanding wasn’t fair play for a company that already had leasing agreements, and more important, that it would cost the island jobs.
I’m checking into lobbyist expenditure reports to see exactly what Senator Poulsen meant about Glacier’s lobbying campaign on Reps. O’Brien and Springer. More on that soon.
Gano’s firm, Gano & Associates, is, by the way, the fourth biggest lobbying firm in the state when judged by revenues. They took in $602,000 in compensation last year according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
I'm not giving up, nobody on the Island is giving up, and nobody who reads this blog should give up either.
People in the 43rd should write, phone, or e-mail Speaker Frank Chopp and demand that the offending amendments be stripped on the House floor or in conference committee.
Frank has been great on this bill, and he needs this kind of backing to proceed toward a positive outcome.
Gano is a liar. Passage of this bill would cost no -- zero -- jobs on the Island because the bill does nothing to affect the present sand and gravel operation, which operates on and for the Island.
The proposed mining and barging operation would be almost entirely automated, for net gain of FOUR jobs. For this we should ruin a significant area in the Sound?
Not now. Not ever!
Once again it seems corporate rights have trumped citizen rights--not to mention environmental rights.
Glacier NW whines that the environmental community is picking on them because we don't want to allow an industrial port to be built in an Aquatic Reserve. Well, as the old saying goes: The best defense is a good offense. And if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes fact. Glacier's lobbyist is pretty good at that.
This area of the Sound was a Conservancy long before Glacier started this process. That's why they got their attorneys (one of which is a member of the Durkin family-- a powerful political family in the state) to tweak the GMA years ago in favor of mining.
The sad part is that 2 Democrats have bought into Glacier's lies and are dancing to their tune.
Let's hope that there are enough Democrats AND Republicans in the House who have the courage and the vision to restore Senator Poulsen's bill to its original state. Without 6011, a multinational corporation will have the right to run roughshod over a fragile ecosystem.
And the best Glacier can say is that they will create a handful of jobs?
It's a shame that no reporter has checked into the Durkin-Gregoire connection.
Once again it seems corporate rights have trumped citizen rights--not to mention environmental rights.
Glacier NW whines that the environmental community is picking on them because we don't want to allow an industrial port to be built in an Aquatic Reserve. Well, as the old saying goes: The best defense is a good offense. And if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes fact. Glacier's lobbyist is pretty good at that.
This area of the Sound was a Conservancy long before Glacier started this process. That's why they got their attorneys (one of which is a member of the Durkin family-- a powerful political family in the state) to tweak the GMA years ago in favor of mining.
The sad part is that 2 Democrats have bought into Glacier's lies and are dancing to their tune.
Let's hope that there are enough Democrats AND Republicans in the House who have the courage and the vision to restore Senator Poulsen's bill to its original state. Without 6011, a multinational corporation will have the right to run roughshod over a fragile ecosystem.
And the best Glacier can say is that they will create a handful of jobs?
It's a shame that no reporter has checked into the Durkin-Gregoire connection.
6011 is like the canary in the coal mine. It will be the telltale to indicate whether this legislature is really going to act to save Puget Sound. Or is it all just meaningless rhetoric.
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