6/3 $15 wage, slide zone bans, BC coal, WA emissions, oil port vote, Oakland Bay restoration

LightAnimal (Haruyoshi Kawai)

If you like to watch: Night Urban Whale & Orca Watching 2014
LightAnimal presents illustrator Haruyoshi Kawai's orcas and humpbacks projected on a building in downtown Yokohama.

Seattle City Council approves historic $15 minimum wage
Seattle City Council approves a $15 minimum wage, creating a path over the next seven years to provide the highest minimum wage in the country. Lynn Thompson and Amy Martinez report. (Seattle Times)

Vote on landslide-zone restrictions postponed again
Snohomish County policymakers have reached an impasse over whether to impose emergency restrictions on homebuilding near landslide zones. On Monday, the County Council again put off voting on a temporary building ban until at least June 25, when members scheduled a public hearing. The hearing will give people a chance to comment before the council takes action. Even then, odds are against a moratorium along the lines of what County Council Chairman Dave Somers first suggested in April. To pass, the emergency legislation would need support from four of five council members — and it isn’t there. Noah Haglund report. (Everett Herald)

U.S. climate-change plan will likely affect Vancouver [BC] coal-port expansion
The Obama administration’s plan to restrict emissions from coal-burning power plants in the United States is expected to intensify an environmental battle that is already under way over coal-port expansion in British Columbia. “I think it has potentially huge implications, because [Obama’s] rules are going to dramatically shrink the market for coal in the States,” Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), said Monday about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Energy Act. Under the new regulations, coal-burning power plants will have to cut carbon emissions 30 per cent by 2030. Mr. Washbrook said that restriction will cause some power plants to shut down and others will have to cut back on their use of thermal coal, forcing the mining industry to look for other markets. Mark Hume reports. (Globe and Mail)

Prior agreement to phase out Centralia coal plant will cover most emissions reductions
You could argue that Washington had it easier all along, with abundant rivers that provide cheap hydropower and an economy that didn’t depend on coal. You wouldn’t be wrong. Back in 2000, West Virginia, with half as many people, produced four times more carbon-dioxide emissions from electricity generation as Washington — almost all of it from that state’s politically powerful, jobs-producing coal industry. While even West Virginia burns far more natural gas than it once did, its total CO2 emissions have merely stayed the same. Washington’s emissions during the same time dropped more than 20 percent and just keep falling. Craig Welch reports. (Seattle Times) See also: Gov. Inslee praises Obama step on reducing coal-plant carbon emissions Brad Shannon reports. (Olympian)

Vancouver [WA] City Council Votes 5-2 To Oppose Northwest’s Largest Oil Terminal
Monday night had turned to Tuesday morning by the time the Vancouver City Council voted to pass a non-binding resolution opposing what would be the Northwest’s largest oil-by-rail shipping facility. The vote was 5-2 with Mayor Tim Leavitt and Councilor Bill Turlay dissenting. It followed six hours of testimony from residents, most of them opposed to the Port of Vancouver’s planned facility that would transfer North Dakota crude oil from trains to ships bound for West Coast refineries. Cassandra Profita reports. (EarthFix)

With golf out of the way, habitat can be restored
An impressive array of partners will assemble at the old Bayshore Golf Course on Oakland Bay northeast of Shelton on Tuesday to celebrate the purchase of some highly touted Puget Sound nearshore habitat. The nine-hole golf course, which opened in 1948, closed for good last December, paving the way for a future void of golf, but filled with opportunities to restore 74 acres at the mouth of Johns Creek for the benefit of salmon and other fish and wildlife. The $2.3 million acquisition had been in the works for 13 years, ever since the Capitol Land Trust and Squaxin Island Tribe started talking about it, said former Capitol Land Trust executive director Eric Erler. The project plays a key role in efforts to restore the health of north Oakland Bay and its freshwater tributaries, including Johns, Malaney, Deer and Cranberry creeks. With this purchase, nearly 325 acres of north Oakland Bay uplands and shoreline have been protected by the land trust and its partners through three separate purchases since 2004. John Dodge reports. (Olympian)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT TUE JUN 3 2014
TODAY
VARIABLE WIND TO 10 KT. WIND WAVES 1 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 7 FT AT 10 SECONDS.
TONIGHT
W WIND 5 TO 15 KT...BECOMING SW TO 10 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 6 FT AT 10 SECONDS. PATCHY DRIZZLE
 AFTER MIDNIGHT.

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