Gov. Gregoire Defangs Oil Spill Advisory Council

Tweet This week Gregoire told the chairman of the Oil Spill Advisory Council, which is less than 1 1/2 years old, that she is proposing legislation to move the council under the Ecology Department. Environmentalists call the agency overly deferential to the oil industry.

The council, by contrast, backed stationing a rescue tug at Neah Bay year-round and better protecting sensitive spots such as the San Juan Islands. It called for doubling the state's spill-prevention efforts -- and paying for it by boosting oil and gasoline taxes by 0.000392 percent, or less than three-hundredths of a penny per gallon.

Gregoire's idea "defangs" the new council, said Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, chairman of the House Select Committee on Puget Sound.

"That's taking the teeth out," Upthegrove said. "These are the citizens who had the courage to take on Big Oil."

The oil industry dissented from the Washington council's first major set of recommendations -- which would cost the industry some $9 million annually. The governor's idea tracks with what industry representatives requested.

Gregoire's position also flies in the face of the group she appointed to map out a Puget Sound rescue plan, the Puget Sound Partnership, which endorsed the oil council's key recommendations.