…And a Bill to Watch

This bill, which has 31 co-sponsors in the House—including groovy libs like prime sponsor Geoff Simpson (D-47, Covington, Kiss Song), Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, Vashon, West Seattle), Rep. Maralyn Chase (D-32, Shoreline), Rep. Brendan Williams (D-22, Olympia), and Rep. Bob Hasegawa (D-11, South Seattle)—would mandate that fighting global warming become a requirement of the Growth Management Act.

Practically speaking, that means: In addition to abiding by GMA rules that mandate things like density and wildlife preservation, now when local governments deal with zoning regulations, they’d also have to consider the carbon bootprint of development.

Yesterday, the bill got the yay vote out of committee and the green light from leadership to get it into Rules (the last stop before it goes to the floor.) That sounds like good news, but I say keep your eye on this one. There is heavy opposition from business.

I think part of the reason it was nudged out of committee (some sly Dem opponents on the committee reportedly gave it the thumbs up) is because it’s easier to mug things in the crowded Rules Committee where bills die all the time without the spotlight of contentious policy committee votes.

There’s a Senate companion bill being sponsored by an equally impressive gang of Senate-side lefties including: Sen. Jeanne Khol-Welles (D-36, Ballard), Sen. Adam Kline (D-37, South Seattle), Sen. Craig Pridemore (D-49, Vancouver), Sen. Weinstein (D-41, Mercer Island), Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33, Des Moines), and prime sponsor Sen. Chris Marr (D-6, Fairwood.) The Senate version had a hearing on January 22.