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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2018 Washington state’s carbon tax bill dies By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — Another ambitious effort to pass a car- bon tax in Washington state has faltered as both Gov. Jay Inslee and the bill’s prime sponsor said Thursday that there weren’t enough votes to pass the measure out of the state Senate. Washington would have been the first U.S. state to impose a straight tax on car- bon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels like gasoline and electricity and the legisla- tion has been closely watched nationally. But Inslee told The Associ- ated Press Thursday they were still “one or two votes shy” of passing it out of the Demo- crat-controlled Senate. The bill also needed to clear the House, also controlled by Democrats, before the short 60-day legis- lative session ends March 8. “I would consider this a sea change in the climate fight. It’s come a long way from where we’ve been. We’ve basically shown that carbon policy is within reach,” said the Democratic governor. He noted the bill cleared key pol- icy and fiscal committees — advancing farther than pre- vious measures — but didn’t have the votes to bring it to a floor vote. “On the arc of history, we’re not quite far along enough on the arc,” Inslee said. “That day will come but it wasn’t quite here yet.” The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, a Seat- tle Democrat, said in coming years, “we’re going to see a price on carbon in this state.” Washington state has been on the forefront of policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. A coalition of environmen- tal, tribal and other groups In 2020, the carbon tax would mean a 10 cent hike in gasoline prices, or nearly 4 percent higher than it otherwise would be, according to legislative analysts. have vowed to bring a car- bon initiative to the ballot in November should the Legisla- ture fail to act. Barry Rabe, a professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the Univer- sity of Michigan, said if the bill is defeated it underscores “that political support for a carbon tax does remain one of the heaviest lifts in American politics.” “Even in a state like Wash- ington where you have a gov- ernor who is enthusiastically in favor, a Legislature that seems to lean to the idea, this proves difficult to do at least at this point,” he said. Washington voters rejected a carbon tax initiative in 2016, with many major environmen- tal groups surprisingly lin- ing up against the bill partly over disagreements about how money raised would be spent. Senate Bill 6023 would have imposed a new tax of $12 per metric ton of carbon emis- sions on the sale or use of fos- sil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. The tax would have started in 2019 and in 2021 would have increased $1.80 per ton each year until it hit $30 a ton. The tax was projected to raise $766 million in the first two years. Businesses such as REI and Microsoft Corp. voiced sup- port for the measure. But other business groups, lawmakers and critics called it an energy tax that would be paid mostly by families and those who could least afford it. They crit- icized the numerous exemp- tions in the bill. In 2020, the carbon tax would mean a 10 cent hike in gasoline prices, or nearly 4 percent higher than it oth- erwise would be, according to legislative analysts. Todd Myers with the Wash- ington Policy Center said the bill would not achieve the promised carbon reductions. He said too much money goes to carve outs, special inter- ests and expensive projects that won’t actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions as promised. “I don’t think that the fail- ure to pass this year is going to stop other states,” said Charles Komanoff, who directs the New York-based Carbon Tax Center. Carbon-pricing bills have been introduced in states, including Massachu- setts, Oregon, New York and Rhode Island, but none have advanced as far as in Washing- ton, experts noted. Inslee said several bills are still pending in the Legislature that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including one that moves the state’s electri- cal grid away from fossil fuels and another that sets higher targets for reducing carbon pollution. For king salmon, an incredible shrinking feeling Giant Chinook may be a thing of the past ‘There is a large number of resident killer whales out there that really target Chinook, and they target the large Chinook.’ By JOHN RYAN KUOW While the orcas of Puget Sound are sliding toward extinction, orcas farther north have been expanding their numbers. Their burgeon- ing hunger for big fish may be causing the killer whales’ main prey, Chinook salmon, to shrink up and down the West Coast. Chinook salmon are also known as kings: the biggest of all salmon. They used to grow so enormous that it’s hard to believe the old photos now. Fishermen stand next to Chi- nooks almost as tall as they are, sometimes weighing 100 pounds or more. “This has been a season of unusually large fish, and many weighing from 60 to 70 pounds have been taken,” The Oregonian reported in 1895. “It’s not impossible that we see individuals of that size today, but it’s much, much rarer,” University of Washing- ton research scientist Jan Ohl- berger said on Monday, more than a century later. Ohlberger has been track- ing the downsizing of salmon in recent decades, but salmon have been shrinking in num- bers and in size for a long time. A century’s worth of dam-building, overfishing, habitat loss and replacement by hatchery fish cut the aver- age Chinook in half, size- Jan Ohlberger University of Washington research scientist U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisherman Tony Canessa with an 85-pound Chinook he caught near Astoria in 1925. wise, studies in the 1980s and 1990s found. Dam-building and fishing have tailed off, but Chinooks have been shrinking even faster in the past 15 years, according to a new paper by Ohlberger and colleagues in the journal Fish and Fisheries. Older and bigger fish are mostly gone. Few fish are making it to old age, which for a Chinook salmon means spending five or six years in the ocean after a year or two in freshwater. “The older fish, which nor- mally come back after five years in the ocean, they come back earlier and earlier,” Ohl- berger said. 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The 2,300 or more resident killer whales in the Northeast Pacific Ocean eat about 20 million pounds of Chinook salmon a year — roughly equal to the annual com- mercial catch of Chinook in recent years, according to the new study. “There is a large number of resident killer whales out there that really target Chi- nook, and they target the large Chinook,” Ohlberger said. A study from federal researchers in November found that orcas’ consump- tion of Chinook salmon in the Northeast Pacific Ocean has doubled since 1975, surpass- ing humans’ catches, which have fallen by a third over that time. “As far as we can see, the killer whales are taking the older and bigger fish,” said Craig Matkin, a whale researcher with the North Gulf Oceanic Society in Homer, Alaska. Matkin, who was not involved in Ohlberg- er’s paper, studies Alaskan orcas’ diets. “We go along with the ani- mals and scoop up fish scales and bits of flesh from where P LEASE , NO EARLY DROP - OFFS Items must have the 10 cent, OR redemption label in order to benefit the band programs The Band Boosters are the primary source of funds to keep Astoria’s school band programs functioning. Please help by dropping off your empties or making a donation. Call (503) 791-8134 or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org for more information. Help us keep Downtown Seaside blooming! Astor Street Opry Company Presents Pete r Pan A Musical Adve nture Directed by Katherine Lacaze Music Direction by Dena Tuveng show dates: February 17 & 18, 24 & 25, and March 3 & 4 All shows perform on Saturday & Sunday at 2pm For tickets, call 503-325-6104 www.astorstreetoprycompany.com 129 W. Bond St. · Astoria Dundees Bar & Grill is donating 50% of all food AND beverage sales (including alcohol!) to the Downtown Flower Basket Program. Now in it’s 23rd year, Downtown Seaside is known for it’s lush fl ower baskets gracing it’s streets. Sponsorships, & basket orders for private purchase will also be available. Flowerbasket Fundraiser Dundees Bar & Grill • 414 Broadway Seaside Wednesday, March 7 TH , 2018 | 5 PM to 10 PM they kill something,” Matkin said. “They’re sloppy eaters.” “They’re going to go for the biggest, oiliest fish there are,” Matkin continued. “That’s Chinooks.” Salmon born in Oregon and Washington state spend most of their lives out at sea, often in Alaskan waters, where orcas aplenty await. “Our (orca) populations have increased faster than any- where else, and they’re eat- ing Chinook from all over the place,” Matkin said. In short, it seems Puget Sound orcas are having their lunch stolen by their better-off Alaskan relatives. “It is an interesting twist to blame the marine mammals,” Ken Balcomb with the Cen- ter for Whale Research on San Juan Island said in an email. “I would first ask how the Chinook evolved to be so big during the preceding 12,000 years in the presence of hordes of such size-selective natu- ral predators throughout their range. Large size was selected by Mother Nature for Chi- nook salmon in spite of natu- ral predation.” Balcomb points to over- fishing, habitat loss and salmon hatcheries that have diluted the gene pool of wild Chinooks. Today’s smaller Chinook salmon lay fewer eggs than bigger ones can. They also have a harder time digging out gravel nests deep enough to protect their eggs from scour- ing streamflows. Chinooks’ downsizing could spell trouble for all the mammals who want to catch them, whether they have fin- gers or fins. “Predators are also going to adapt to this change in size and numbers,” Matkin said. “You can’t look at it as a static situation.” “Ultimately, the whales must eat to survive, and humans have not sufficiently allowed for that in their fisher- ies management calculations,” Balcomb said. Phone and Internet Discounts Available to CenturyLink Customers The Oregon Public Utility Commission designated CenturyLink as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier within its service area for universal service purposes. CenturyLink’s basic local service rates for residential voice lines are $15.80-$17.80 per month and business services are $28.00-$32.00 per month. Specific rates will be provided upon request. 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