11/9 Sea pork, WA EV order, melting glaciers, infrastructure bill, nuke power, Fawn Sharp, whale barnacles, border opening

Aplidium elegans [Wikipedia]

Sea Pork Aplidium ssp.
A common colonial ascidian that forms thick slabs on rocks. The pink, brown or orange individuals are encased in clear jelly; connected by creeping stolons, from which new individuals grow. (Marine Wildlife of Puget Sound, the san Juans, and the Strait of Georgia)

In new climate order, Inslee says Washington State vehicles to plug in
Many of Washington’s state vehicles will transition to electric over the next 19 years, according to an executive order issued by Gov. Jay Inslee during his time at the United Nations Climate Conference in Scotland. Courtney Flatt reports. (NW News Network)

How one Northwest tribe aims to keep its cool as its glaciers melt
Record-breaking heat took a heavy toll on the Northwest this summer, from beaches to cities to mountaintops. In the Washington Cascades, some glaciers lost an unprecedented 8% to 10% of their ice in a single hot season. The extremely hot summer of 2021 foreshadowed how unchecked climate change could ravage the fish that depend on cold water and the people who depend on those fish. In Whatcom County, the Nooksack and Lummi tribes are taking steps to counteract the big melt and keep their salmon and their cultures alive. Part 2 of 2. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

How the Democrats Finally got an Infrastructure Bill Passed
The infrastructure bill, passed Friday night in the U.S. House of Representatives and already enacted by the Senate, is the country’s largest public works package since interstate highways construction in the 1950s, which saw cooperation between Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and a Democratic Congress with Lyndon Johnson running the Senate. Washington state is shovel- and computer-ready. Our state has 416 bridges in “poor” condition, King County Metro wants to put electric-powered buses on the streets, small and large airports are ready for upgrades, climate change has need for increased local and federal firefighting capacity, aging irrigation systems need restoring, and a tech economy demands full internet access. Such good works are needed by a divided country. The bill drew bipartisan support in the Senate: Hell, even Mitch McConnell voted for it. Joel Connelly reports. (Post Alley) See:  Federal infrastructure package is an $8.6 billion ‘game changer’ for Washington state  Paul Roberts reports. (Seattle Times)

This next generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington. Can it 'change the world'?
Near the Columbia River, Clay Sell hopes to launch a new era of nuclear power with four small reactors, each stocked with billiard ball-sized “pebbles” packed full of uranium fuel. Chief executive officer of Maryland-based X-energy, Sell aims to bring the project online by 2028 as part of a broader attempt to develop safer, more flexible reactors to redefine the nation’s energy future...The federal Energy Department has received $160 million to help fund X-energy, and the infrastructure bill that cleared Congress on Friday ups that amount to cover almost half the projected $2.2 billion cost of the Washington reactor project. Hal Bernton reports. (Seattle Times)

Washington’s Fawn Sharp becomes first Tribal leader to receive diplomatic credentials
National Congress of American Indians President and Washington state Tribal leader Fawn Sharp has become the first Tribal leader to receive diplomatic credentials from the U.S. State Department, joining its delegation to the United Nations’ 26th annual Conference of the Parties, or COP26. Appointed by the Biden administration as an official credentialed delegate of the United States, Sharp has centered Tribal issues at COP26, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. Natasha Brennan reports. (McClatchy)

What Whale Barnacles Know
For generations, these hitchhikers have been recording details about their hosts and their ocean home. Mara Grunbaum reports. (Hakai Magazine)

U.S. re-opens land borders, but there is no mad rush south
The $150 to $300 cost of a COVID PCR test on return makes it cost-prohibitive to head over the border to fill up with gas or buy cheap cheese and milk. Susan Lazaruk and Derrick Penner report. (Vancouver Sun)

Victoria flotilla welcomes M.V. Coho, cross-border travellers, for first time since March 2020
For the first time since March 2020, the M.V. Coho has ferried travellers between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, BC, and boaters in Victoria took the opportunity to celebrate. A hodgepodge of marine vessels formed a flotilla to escort the Black Ball Ferry into its downtown Victoria port. (Victoria News)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  244 AM PST Tue Nov 9 2021   
GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON   
TODAY  SW wind 30 to 40 kt easing to 25 to 35 kt in the  afternoon. Combined seas 13 to 16 ft with a dominant period of  10 seconds subsiding to 11 to 12 ft with a dominant period of  9 seconds in the afternoon. A chance of showers and a slight  chance of tstms in the morning then showers and a chance of tstms  in the afternoon. 
TONIGHT  W wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft. W swell 9 ft  at 11 seconds building to 11 ft at 12 seconds after midnight.  Showers in the evening. A chance of tstms.

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