11/24 Tides & weather, BC pipe wins, Ruckelshaus, state carbon, WA oil terminal, Shell drill

(PHOTO: Islands Sounder)

Giant octopus washes ashore in Eastsound
The bright red octopus found on Crescent Beach in early October was not the first, or the last. This giant Pacific Octopus lives in the Salish Sea, all around the San Juan Islands and the Puget Sound, and grows up to 150 pounds and 15 feet across. The life of the largest octopus happens to be a short one; they only live three to five years and they mate at the end of their life. The female octopus will care for her eggs that are hanging in her den for five to eight months and then she dies. Kat Barnard reports. (Islands Sounder)

King tides and snow headed to Seattle area
Snow showers are in the forecast as the highest tides of the fall come to Puget Sound. The highest “king tide” coming this year is scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 2:40 p.m. Tuesday. Similarly high water, driven by a seasonal alignment of the sun and moon, is expected at all of the state’s coastal communities. Those high tides come as the Weather Service warns of an oncoming storm that could bring snow to the lowlands. A cold front is expected to arrive Monday night over much of the Western Washington. High winds are forecast for Bellingham and the San Juan Islands. Levi Pulkkinen reports. (SeattlePI.Com) And: Chance of snow for southern B.C. rises as temperature drops  (Vancouver Sun) However: Forget the Lowland Snow or Frigid Temperatures West of the Cascade Crest  For those of you hoping for some snow near sea level, I am afraid I have some bad news...not this time.   I should note that a few media outlets are still hyping snow and cold. Cliff Mass writes. (Weather Blog)

Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline wins court battle against Burnaby
The City of Burnaby's bylaw battle against the Trans Mountain pipeline has been shut down by a B.C. Supreme Court judge who has declared that the National Energy Board rules take precedence over the city's. The Metro Vancouver city has tried to hamper preliminary planning in advance of laying the 1,100-kilometre-long pipeline between Alberta and coastal B.C. through two separate bylaws. (CBC)

Seattle's First EPA Chief Laments The Environment's Partisan Divide
Environmental elder statesman William Ruckelshaus may not have decided where to display the Presidential Medal of Honor he will be receiving at a White House ceremony Tuesday. But he has decided how to have a little fun with it. “Well I’ve threatened my wife to wear it outside my suit coat in the daytime and inside my pajamas at night so it wouldn’t hit her in the face when I turned over,” joked the 83-year-old Ruckelshaus before admitting he really doesn’t know what he’ll do with the medal, one of 17 being awarded. Ashley Ahearn reports. (EarthFix)

State has authority to regulate carbon emissions, judge rules
A King County Superior Court judge has found that the state Department of Ecology has both the authority and “mandatory duty” to move ahead with a proposal to regulate carbon emissions. Judge Hollis Hill’s decision, released Thursday, has been embraced by environmentalists who hope it sets a legal precedent that will help Ecology’s rule-making effort survive likely challenges. In her 10-page ruling, Hill wrote that the state had the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which include carbon emissions from fossil fuels, both under the state Clean Air Act and the state Constitution. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)

Washington State To Issue Report On Vancouver Oil Terminal
Washington state is scheduled to release a detailed environmental assessment Tuesday of the proposed oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The report by the state’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council considers the oil-by-rail project’s possible impacts to air, land and water. It will examine possible impacts the project could have, like pollution, noise, earthquake hazards, and risks for fish and wildlife. The public will have until January to comment on the proposal. Conrad Wilson reports. (EarthFix)

A pyrrhic environmental victory in the Arctic
Environmentalist joy at the cessation of Alaskan offshore oil exploration is in fact the result of the overall striking intensification of global oil extraction. Andreas Kuersten opines. (Seattle Times)

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 308 AM PST TUE NOV 24 2015
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT
TODAY
E WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING NE 5 TO 15 KT THIS AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 1 TO 3 FT. W SWELL
 10 FT AT 12 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
NE WIND 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 7 FT AT 12 SECONDS...SUBSIDING TO 5 FT AT 12 SECONDS AFTER MIDNIGHT.
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