12/11 Sculpin, Tacoma LNG, Greta Thunberg, Exxon wins, OR fuel terminals, Wyoming coal, Fraser slide, Squamish housing, NW rain, all-electric plane, vultures, orcas,

Longfin sculpin [Mike Munroe]

Longfin sculpin Jordania zonope
The long fin sculpin is named for its long anal fin. The sculpin has a slender body and reaches 15 cm in length. It inhabits rocky reefs, in caves and crevices, and among kelp from the intertidal to 60 m depth. It is frequently spotted lying along vertical rock faces and cavern walls. Its range extends from central Alaska to central California. This active species in very territorial during the breeding season. The male guards the egg clusters. (Biodiversity of the Central Coast)
Air agency okays Tacoma gas plant. Foes vow to fight on
Regulators have approved construction of Puget Sound Energy's 14-story-tall liquid natural gas plant on the Tacoma waterfront. Opponents are expected to appeal the decision by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Climate activists and the Puyallup Tribe have tried for years to stop the plant, which is nearly complete, from being built. The permit allows Puget Sound Energy to finish construction and ultimately deliver 250,000 gallons of gas a day by pipeline from western Canada to the plant and super-chill up to 8 million gallons of gas in a tank as tall as the Tacoma Dome. John Ryan reports. (KUOW) See also: Tacoma LNG facility gains permit approval from clean air agency after long, hard fight  Debbie Cockrell reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Greta Thunberg is 'Time' Magazine's Person Of The Year For 2019
Greta Thunberg, the young activist who has quickly become a leading voice on climate change, is Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. Thunberg is just 16. But she has burst onto the world stage in the past year, organizing school strikes and protest marches to call attention to a climate crisis that she says older generations are not taking seriously enough. She has famously called out world leaders for debating scientific facts and failing to stop a global warming trend that will affect the world’s children more than it affects anyone who’s currently in power. Bill Chappell reports. (NPR)

Exxon Wins New York Climate Change Fraud Case
A judge has handed ExxonMobil a victory in only the second climate change lawsuit to reach trial in the United States. The decision was a blow for New York's Attorney General's Office, which brought the case. Justice Barry Ostrager of the New York State Supreme Court said that the attorney general failed to prove that the oil giant broke the law. "Nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve ExxonMobil from responsibility for contributing to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gasses in the production of its fossil fuel products," Ostranger wrote. But, he added, "this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case." Laurel Wamsley reports. (NPR)

New Breed Of Oregon Fuel Terminals Is Harder For Opponents To Fight
Environmentalists take credit for blocking fossil fuel developments across the Northwest. Numerous companies looking to ship coal, oil and natural gas through Oregon and Washington have given up in the face of endless permitting hurdles and denials. But opponents may have met their match with a new breed of projects shipping fuel by rail in Oregon. The Zenith Energy oil terminal and the Columbia Pacific Biorefinery took over existing industrial facilities and didn’t need many permits to start transporting fuel. The companies running these projects don’t need to provide much information to the public about what kind of fuel they’re handling and where it’s going. Cassandra Profita reports. (OBP)

Wyoming governor considers suing Washington over terminal
Wyoming’s governor says he continues to consider a possible lawsuit against Washington state over construction of the largest coal export terminal on the West Coast. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Republican Gov. Mark Gordon says he has asked Attorney General Bridget Hill to give him options regarding the Millennium Bulk Terminal. The Washington Department of Natural Resources cited environmental grounds in denying a construction lease for the terminal on the Columbia River in Longview, Washington. Wyoming industry groups and lawmakers say the completed terminal could ship coal produced in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to international markets. (Associated Press)

Fraser River slide has huge impact on community: Interior First Nation
High on the Chilcotin plateau in British Columbia’s Interior, the chief of a local First Nation says the traditional diet of its members is threatened by a landslide more than 150 kilometre away. Tl’etinqox Chief Joe Alphonse, who also represents five other local nations as tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, says Fraser River tributaries once teeming with salmon have shown paltry returns since the Big Bar landslide was discovered in June. “On a good year, you can run across the river on the backs of sockeye, that’s how thick our rivers are. And bright, bright, bright almost fluorescent orange colour, it’s an awesome sight,” he said. Alphonse estimated up to 170,000 sockeye returned to local tributaries this year where the annual average is closer to one million. Amy Smart reports. (Canadian Press)

'We deserve to benefit from this land': Squamish Nation votes for $3B housing project on its land
The Squamish Nation voted last night to proceed with the $3-billion Sen̓áḵw housing development project on Kitsilano reserve land in Vancouver, making it one of the biggest housing projects led by a First Nation in Canada. The First Nation will partner with Westbank Development Corporation to build 11 towers and 6,000 rental housing units on a 4.7-hectare parcel of land in the Kitsilano area that the Squamish gained back in a land-claims agreement in 2000.  Angela Sterritt reports. (CBC)

Don't let the rain fool you: A water shortage is coming to the Northwest
Climate models predict the Northwest will receive more annual precipitation, but less of it will fall as snow. That jeopardizes fish and farms during dry summer months. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Bitterroot Magazine)

All systems go: 1st all-electric commercial seaplane takes flight in B.C.
It was a short but historic moment on the Fraser River on Tuesday morning as Vancouver-based Harbour Air completed the debut test flight of what aims to be the world's first fully electric commercial aircraft. Harbour Air founder and chief executive Greg McDougall took off solo in the bright yellow retrofitted DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver float plane, spent three minutes in the air over Richmond, B.C., before circling back and landing in front of a roughly 120 assembled onlookers and media. The exercise is the first in what is expected to be a two-year process to get the e-plane certified for commercial use. Karin Larsen reports. (CBC)

The Vulture Watcher
One man’s spirited commitment to an underappreciated bird. Larry Pynn reports. (Hakai Magazine)

Orca as "alien?"
A reader responds to Dean Burke's orca encounter story [Looking an orca in the eye: 'The closest thing to alien contact I may ever know'] and writes: "Resonates with my own encounter off South Pender, seated in the stern of a small boat. But I didn’t experience this as alien; rather, as fully “mammal” on both sides. I don’t know if aliens (whoever that is) have an organ called brain that processes what organs like eye and ear send to be understood; but the look we exchanged reflected that we both do have eyes and brains and are truly not very far apart in this world. As John Lilly wrote, 'mind in the waters.'"


Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  247 AM PST Wed Dec 11 2019   
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON   
TODAY  SE wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 8 ft  at 12 seconds. A chance of rain in the morning then rain in the  afternoon. 
TONIGHT  SE wind 15 to 25 kt becoming SW 5 to 15 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft subsiding to 2 ft or less after  midnight. W swell 9 ft at 15 seconds building to 13 ft at  13 seconds after midnight. Rain.



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