The governor has called a special session, and to his credit, he has told legislators he'll keep calling them back until they come up with a workable solution to our most important problem, transportation. They should implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission, period. But it looks like they're going to dump it back into the laps of the voters, with a referendum for higher gas taxes and some bureaucratic reorganization. Well, that's better than nothing. But if they're going to go that route, the governor and legislative leaders are going to have to show some real leadership, make that salesmanship, together with an ironclad pledge that dollars raised will be spent on specific congestion-relieving projects.
Energy is a problem that has seen lots of talk but little action.
Short of doing rain dances, there is very little they can do in the short term. But there is a lot they could have done in past years to have alleviated the impending crisis, and those steps would help enormously in the future. Specifically, we need to give higher priority to keeping little old ladies from freezing in their homes than to unscientific pandering to the environmental crowd. We should immediately grant permits to clean-burning gas turbine plants like that proposed in Whatcom County. We should abandon all this nonsense about breaching dams.