by The Seattle Times Editorial Board
Washington’s Environment is diverse, wondrous, and—of course—sustains all life. We do not question its contributions to our global reputation as the true home of rain, and the worldwide leader of seasonal affective disorder.
However, despite guaranteeing life for 7.4 million Washingtonians, the Environment’s failure to respond to public records requests (recently submitted by The Seattle Times and a coalition of lesser entities, like this trash “blog”) is of grave concern.
When asked to comment, the Environment responded with nearly four days of crushing, dense fog.
Without these records, how can we, The Seattle Times Editorial Board, be expected to independently assess the cause of recent CO2 increases in our atmosphere? How will we decide what steps are reasonable to combat the effects? HOW WILL WE KNOW?
Further transparency is vital in holding our Environment accountable for more intense heat waves, severe droughts, deadly wildfires, and smoke filled Augusts. There is no way we can know these things without definitive comment or records from the Environment itself.
Most importantly, with access to the Environment’s records, we would be able to resolve once and for all which of Rodney Tom, Dino Rossi, and Joe Fain deserves the most credit for longer summers.
This lack of transparency is troubling. Vote No on I-1631.
The Seattle Time Editorial Board is made up of anonymous lovers of public records laws who definitely have nothing to gain from eliminating the estate tax.
