The National Marine Fisheries Service on Friday finalized rules to expand the Southern Resident orca’s critical habitat from the Canadian border down to Point Sur, California, adding 15,910 square miles (41,207 square kilometers) of foraging areas, river mouths and migratory pathways.
Whatcom County’s council unanimously passed a measure that bans the construction of new refineries, coal-fired power plants and other fossil fuel-related infrastructure.
Under the new law, the Northwest Detention Center, a 1,575-bed immigration jail in Tacoma, will be forced to shut down. The facility is run by GEO Group, a private prison company under federal contract.
Recompose, a Seattle-based company, now offers an innovative funeral service that turns human remains into healthy soil.
Eighty members of the public have been selected through a lottery to join the country’s first climate assembly in Washington. The assembly is constituted to deliberate on environmental issues.
The Housing Equity Fund will invest more than $2 billion to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable housing units in Washington State’s Puget Sound; Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Since 2014, tribes along the Columbia River have been working on a plan to reintroduce salmon to the river, researching factors such as habitat, fish passage, and others.
In November, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to ban natural gas in new buildings. On December 2, Oakland’s city council did the same. Now Seattle Mayor Durkan announced a proposal to ban natural gas in new commercial and large multi-family construction for space and most water heating.
Dozens of Native nations and tribal institutions in the United States have designed climate change plans that include formal strategies and initiatives to increase the resiliency of their communities.
The city of Seattle has passed a new wage scale for Uber and Lyft drivers, including a $16.39 minimum wage, to ensure their wages match those of other minimum wage workers in the city.
