The other top two priorities for the statewide Environmental Priorities Coalition are defensive stances to ward off weakening of state environmental regulations and preserve the clean-energy goals of voter-approved Initiative 937.
Each year, environmental groups gather before lawmakers convene to pick their top legislative priorities. This year’s main bill is dubbed the Toxics-Free Kids Act.
Senate Bill 6120 and House Bill 2266 – identical measures – would:
n Ban the use of two cancer-causing Tris flame retardants (TCDPP and TCEP) in baby products such as car seats, nursing pillows and portable cribs, beginning in July 2014.
A study released Wednesday by the Washington Toxics Coalition found the suspect toxic flame retardants in 85 percent of 20 baby and children’s products tested. Several of the tested products were manufactured with less-toxic or non-toxic alternatives, the toxics coalition’s Ivy Sager-Rosenthal noted.
“Parents need to be scientists to figure out where these chemicals are,” Sager-Rosenthal said.
n Require makers of children’s products that contain formaldehyde, bisphenol A, antimony and Tris flame retardants to find safer chemicals or materials for their products.
One of the goals of the bill is to stop companies from substituting one banned chemical for another toxic one, Sager-Rosenthal said.
The bill is premature, said Bryan Goodman, communications manager for the American Chemistry Council.
“The legislation would impose requirements on these chemicals before the state Department of Ecology has determined that they present even the slightest risk to human health,” Goodman said a statement.
Environmentalists also are on guard against attempts to weaken or delay state environmental laws and programs designed to curb sprawl, protect drinking water and reduce air pollution.
“It’s a fight we didn’t pick, let alone want,” said Bill Robinson, a state lobbyist for The Nature Conservancy.
One battle likely to be rekindled in the 2012 session is over the state Growth Management Act. Some legislators, including members of the House Republican caucus, say requirements in the 22-year-old land-use act are stifling economic recovery in rural, job-starved counties.
House Minority Leader Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, said his caucus supports House Bill 1592, which would suspend Growth Management Act requirements in counties with significant and persistent unemployment. Another measure, House Bill 1961, would require government agencies to make permit decisions within 90 days; otherwise, the permit would automatically be granted.
The Association of Washington Business will support legislation that streamlines environmental permits for its member businesses, said AWB policy analyst Brandon Housekeeper.
“We’re looking at ways to drive down the costs of complying with environmental regulations, but we’re not asking to do it at the cost of environmental protection,” Housekeeper said.
Environmentalists reject the notion that environmental rules and regulations are deterring economic recovery.
“Our healthy environment has attracted and retained industry-leading businesses like Starbucks, Microsoft and Costco, and the best and the brightest work force,” an environmental coalition position paper suggested. “Weakening these protections puts our health and economic future at risk.”
The economic recession has prompted a different bone of contention between environmental groups and some of the state’s public utilities, which are required by Initiative 937 to boost their portfolios of renewable energy resources from 3 percent through 2015 to 15 percent by 2020.
The voter-approved initiative has played a key role in generating about $7 billion in renewable energy investments in the state and reduced utilities’ reliance on climate-changing fossil fuels, according to the environmental community.
However, for some utilities, the initiative is forcing them to buy new green-energy supplies they don’t need because the demand for energy by their customers isn’t growing, said George Caan, executive director of the Washington Public Utility District Association.
“There may be some reasonable fixes we can all agree to,” noted Marc Krasnowsky of the NW Energy Coalition.
Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, already has met the 9 percent clean energy required by 2016 and has no desire to see the initiative amended, according to company vice president for corporate affairs Andy Wappler.
Robinson said much of the give-and-take over environmental safeguards and the clean-energy initiative will be tied to budget negotiations that won’t kick into gear until after the state’s new revenue forecast in February.
“There will be a lot of horse trading around the budget,” Robinson predicted.
While the environmental coalition has a limited agenda, there will be any number of other environmental bills introduced in the 2012 session. For example, companion bills in the House and Senate have been introduced, calling for the nation’s first statewide ban on plastic grocery and retail bags.
Also, supporters of a bill to create a prescription-drug take-back program funded by pharmaceutical companies are back this year after an unsuccessful run in the 2011 session.
John Dodge: 360-754-5444
jdodge@theolympian.com
