Environmental advocate Beth Doglio of Olympia is scheduled to speak Tuesday about the fight against Northwest coal exports during the regular monthly meeting of the Democratic Study Group at Panorama in Lacey. Doglio is director of anti-coal campaigns for both Climate Solutions and the Power Past Coal groups.

The study group meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Panorama Auditorium, 1670 Circle Loop S.E. Events are open to the public and to people of any political affiliation.

Doglio’s talk – titled “Coal Export – Northwest Crossroads” – is expected to discuss the fight against the export potentially of 150 million tons of …

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A bill that would outlaw two Tris chemicals used as flame retardants in consumer products died when the Washington Legislature’s regular session ended Sunday. But Democratic Sen. Sharon Nelson of Maury Island said she is working to revive a stronger measure than business groups and the chemical industry wanted.

A special session of the Legislature starts May 13 to complete a two-year budget and Nelson said Tuesday: “I’m going to be pushing it.”

Her Republican counterpart, Sen. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale, said he also wants to pass a flame-retardants bill that is less sweeping while waiting to see what emerges …

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The Senate Majority Coalition Caucus budget that is billed as a big new investment in education – without new taxes – apparently is not putting in as much new cash for K-12 public schools as previously thought. Just yesterday Brian Rosenthal of the Seattle Times dug in to some of the numbers and finds that it falls well short of claims to invest $1 billion in new money for schools.

Read the report here, and a takeaway excerpt is here:

The Senate’s two-year budget was advertised as a $1 billion funding increase for schools. But if you add up

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The state Senate voted to send a bill outlawing certain flame retardants back to

the House on Wednesday. House Bill 1294 was watered down from what the House originally approved on a partisan vote.

Democratic Sen. Sharon Nelson of Maury Island blasted the compromise, saying the “gutted version” that passed “removed much-needed protections for our babies, children and families from these harmful flame retardants that are known to cause cancer.” But Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, says the proposal is a compromise that preserves a process already in place for the Department of Ecology to review chemicals of concern.

Jonathan …

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A bill that tightens up a loophole in the state’s ban on toxic flame retardants is on life support in the state Senate ahead of this afternoon’s 5 o’clock bill deadline. A watered-down version of House Bill 1294 moved out of Senate Rules on Tuesday and had been blocked by the Republican-dominated Majority Coalition Caucus.

HB 1294 is a top 2013 priority for the Environmental Priorities Coalition, and it passed out of the House on a near party-line vote of 53-to-44. But the Senate majority amended the bill in committee to remove key elements backed by …

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An overlooked item in the House Democrats’ operating budget is a $150,000 proviso for a study of the economic impact of coal-export facilities on Washington state.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, called attention to the tiny allocation in the Democrats’ $34.5 billion proposed budget released Wednesday. He said in an email that it “recognizes the need for Washington to thoroughly evaluate the economic impacts of coal exports in our state. By utilizing the expertise of our state agencies, we hope to capture the net economic impacts of the proposed projects so that Washington taxpayers have an apples-to-apples comparison …

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Gov. Jay Inslee signed the climate-change study bill into law today in Seattle. Phuong Le of The Associated Press has the full story here:

SEATTLE (AP) — Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law Tuesday a bill he championed that would study the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the measure, an independent consultant would review efforts to cut carbon emissions in Washington state and elsewhere. A newly created work group of legislators and other leaders would use that evaluation to recommend actions to reduce pollution associated with climate change.

The group will be expected to prioritize strategies

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A retired Western Washington University professor testified to a Republican-controlled state Senate committee  Tuesday that climate change stopped in 1998 and that human-caused greenhouse gases are not responsible for fluctuations in the Earth’s temperatures or melting polar ice caps.

The startling testimony from emeritus professor Don Easterbrook is at odds with an apparent consensus among climate scientists  and climate-science literature about human causes behind the the rise in global temperatures over the past century. His testimony  came one day after the Legislature sent Gov. Jay Inslee a bill that sets up a legislative work group to study Washington’s best …

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