1/17 White Rock, Trans-Mtn pipe, WA greenhouse gas, Microsoft climate, Green Apple plant, smoke health, Skagit sockeye, BC plastics

White rock at White Rock

White Rock, British Columbia
The City of White Rock, British Colombia is named after a single, giant boulder that was left behind on the shores of Semiahmoo Bay thousands of years ago. This 486-ton granite stone was likely delivered to the shore by a breakaway piece of glacier that must have beached on the coast and melted to reveal the hitchhiking rock. Not naturally white, historically the boulder was often covered in terrific amounts of seabird excrement which made the stone stand out so much from the surrounding landscape that sailors could use it as a beacon. In the modern era the city of White Rock regularly paints the stone white lest their namesake lose its meaning. The regularly painted surface no longer signals ships, but now serves as a beacon to local graffiti artists.  (Atlas Obscuria)

Supreme Court dismisses B.C.'s bid to save bill blocking Trans Mountain project
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed B.C.'s appeal of a lower court decision that quashed provincial legislation designed to block the Trans Mountain expansion project. In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Richard Wagner said the court will let the B.C. Court of Appeal decision stand. The decision clears yet another legal hurdle for the long-delayed pipeline project. A separate Federal Court of Appeals case on the project, which considers Indigenous issues, is still pending. The decision, issued from the bench on the same day legal counsel delivered oral arguments, is a blow to B.C. Premier John Horgan, who has sought to stop construction of the expansion. If built, the pipeline will carry nearly a million barrels of oil from Alberta's oilpatch to the B.C. coast each day for export to Asian markets. John Paul Tasker reports. (CBC) B.C. NDP out of tools to stop Trans Mountain pipeline expansion  Nick Eagland reports. (Vancouver Sun) See also: Disappointed, humiliated: B.C. reacts to Trans Mountain court decision  (CBC)

State Supreme Court limits Gov. Inslee's rule cutting greenhouse-gas emissions
The Washington State Supreme Court has invalidated key portions of a rule imposed by the administration of Gov. Jay Inslee capping greenhouse-gas emissions by fuel distributors, natural-gas companies and other industries. In a 5-4 ruling Thursday, the court upheld a 2017 lower-court decision that the state Department of Ecology had exceeded its legal authority in trying to apply clean-air standards to “indirect emitters” that don’t directly burn fossil fuels. “The issue is not whether man-made climate change is real — it is,” wrote Chief Justice Debra Stephens in the majority opinion. However, Stephens wrote, the department’s efforts to enforce the state Clean Air Act went beyond what had been authorized by the law. Jim Brunner and Joseph O'Sullivan report. (Seattle Times)

Microsoft makes big push to tackle climate change, vowing to be carbon neutral by 2030
In the latest move by Big Tech to address climate change, Microsoft has promised to be “carbon negative” within the decade and to use its technology, money and influence to drive down carbon emissions across the economy. Microsoft’s initiative, rolled out Thursday morning, commits the Redmond firm to removing more carbon from the environment than its own operations and its supply chain emit each year by 2030. By 2050, Microsoft says it will have eliminated as much carbon as the company has generated since its founding 45 years ago. Microsoft says it also will push suppliers, customers and policymakers into more carbon-cutting actions and will invest $1 billion over the next four years to speed the development of technology that can actually remove carbon from the atmosphere — “technology that doesn’t fully exist today,” president Brad Smith said Thursday during the company’s  presentation on its Redmond campus. Paul Roberts reports. (Seattle Times)

Here’s the next step for the proposed renewable diesel plant near Ferndale
The state and Whatcom County are asking the public to say what should be included in an environmental review of a proposed plant near Ferndale that could produce up to 250 million gallons of renewable fuel a year, according to its application. The primary fuel would be renewable diesel, with some renewable naphtha and renewable propane and possibly renewable jet fuel, according to the application. The plant would be built on about 40 acres of land at the Phillips 66 refinery property at 3901 Unick Road. It would process fats and grease as well as cooking and vegetable oils into renewable fuels. The existing ship, rail and truck infrastructure at Phillips 66 would be used to receive feedstocks — the waste fats, oils and greases — for the process and ship out the finished product, although there are proposed changes to that infrastructure. In November 2018, Phillips 66 and Renewable Energy Group Inc. announced plans to build a renewable diesel plant. They formed Green Apple Renewable Fuels to do so. Kim Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Washingtonians are more likely to die on smoky days, new UW research shows
....A new study into wildfire smoke’s impacts on mortality, conducted by researchers from the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and the Washington State Departments of Ecology and Health, shows that smoke has measurable lethal impacts on the state’s collective health.The study was published in the journal Environmental Health. Data is slim when it comes to wildfire smoke’s health impacts, despite increasing concern that smoke carries particulates and health-damaging chemicals hundreds of miles from fires, affecting breathing and ultimately our longevity. Hannah Weinberger reports. (Crosscut) See also: Oregon DEQ Data Shows Pollution From Woodstoves Is On A Wildfire’s Scale  Oregon Department of Environmental Quality data released Wednesday  shows 12.8 million pounds of particulate pollution matter are released into Oregon’s air by woodstoves and chimneys each year. Monica Samayoa reports. (OPB) And also: Air Pollution, Evolution, and the Fate of Billions of Humans  Carl Zimmer reports. (NY Times)

Changes may be in store for local sockeye fishery
As annual regional fisheries negotiations get underway for 2020, changes may be proposed for how sockeye salmon are managed in the Skagit River and Baker Lake. The changes would deal with how fish are shared between tribal and recreational fishermen. “Particularly in the last three years there has been a pretty good harvest inequity between the state and the tribes,” state Department of Fish & Wildlife Salmon Policy Analyst Aaron Dufault told the Fish & Wildlife Commission during a Dec. 14 meeting. “We’ve had some really rough years where the recreational harvest is about half of what the treaty harvest is.” Dufault told the Skagit Valley Herald that in years in which fewer fish than expected return to the river system, tribes often harvest thousands more than recreational fishermen. Although some years the opposite occurs, the numbers over the long term are in the tribes’ favor. From 2010 to 2019, tribes caught 20,961 more sockeye, according to Fish & Wildlife records. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

B.C. preps packaging changes that could include ban on plastic bags
The B.C. government is preparing to introduce new bans on single-use plastic products, like grocery bags, as well as boosted options for recycling. The changes will be introduced within weeks and are intended to create a provincewide plan following the differing actions of major cities like Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria, according to a statement by the Ministry of Environment. Rob Shaw reports. (Vancouver Sun)


Now, your weekend tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  252 AM PST Fri Jan 17 2020   
GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY  AFTERNOON   
TODAY  SE wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. SW swell 4  ft at 8 seconds. A chance of showers. 
TONIGHT  E wind 20 to 30 kt rising to 30 to 35 kt after  midnight. Combined seas 5 to 7 ft with a dominant period of  8 seconds. Rain likely in the evening then rain after midnight. 
SAT  SE wind 20 to 30 kt becoming S 15 to 25 kt in the  afternoon. Wind waves 3 to 5 ft. SW swell 9 ft at 9 seconds  building to 11 ft at 11 seconds in the afternoon. Rain. 
SAT NIGHT  SE wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. SW swell  13 ft at 12 seconds building to 15 ft at 14 seconds after  midnight. 
SUN  E wind 10 to 20 kt. Wind waves 1 to 3 ft. W swell 14 ft at  14 seconds subsiding to 12 ft at 13 seconds in the afternoon.



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