Environmental Groups Oppose I-912

The Seattle PI has an article in Monday's paper regarding environmental group support for the transportation bill and against I-912. The Washington Conservation Voters and the Washington Environmental Council backs the bill:

"The selection of projects, from an environmental community perspective, were excellent, focusing not only on congestion relief but on safety and maintenance."

Some greens believe that they should vote for I-912 because they it might mean future legislation that is more in line with their anti-car agenda. However Clifford Traisman, a lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters and the Washington Environmental Council, doesn't see things that way:

"The environmental community does not believe that we'll fare as well in future packages as we did in this one," Traisman said. "The chances of the stars aligning like that in the future are much, much lower."

The ongoing issue with I-912 has been educating the public about what the transportation bill does, and why the projects are so important. I-912's passage would scuttle the bill and leave the transportation infrastructure projects in limbo. Environmental foes scoff at the components in projects intended to address wildlife concerns, such as along I-90.

Environmentalists argue that it's about more than wildlife bridges, pointing to recent tragedies such as last month's rockslide on Snoqualmie Pass that fatally crushed three 28-year-old women. That accident is a reminder of what happens when you neglect your infrastructure, they say.

"We've got our work cut out for us," said Aaron Ostrom, executive director of Futurewise, a Seattle-based smart growth group.

"It's easy for people to vote to cut taxes. You've got to work to communicate the value of those investments."

Which is what this blog has been trying to do for the past month, and will continue to do in the next couple of weeks. For more about the transportation bill projects visit the WSDOT projects site.