In Our View: Protecting Our Coast

September 20, 2006
Columbian editorial writers

Parties and state lines take a back seat to the health of ocean environment

Anyone who depends on West Coast salmon for a livelihood or for recreation knows full well that the kings, coho and other varieties don't care about state borders and the different bureaucracies charged with maintaining the runs. Likewise, as The Seattle Times put it Tuesday, "The low oxygen 'dead zones' along the Pacific Coast in Washington and Oregon this summer showed no regard for state borders."

And, as we all know and fear, an oil spill off the West Coast could inflict major damage to the environment, economies and marine life in two or three states.

With all that as the sword over our collective heads, Monday's agreement by the three governors is good news not great, but good.

Amid some obligatory but legitimate fanfare, Govs. Chris Gregoire of Washington, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed the West Coast Governors' Agreement on Ocean Health (www.governor.wa.gov/news).

Fortunately, party affiliation was as irrelevant to the governors as the state lines are to salmon. (Schwarzenegger is a Republican; the other two are Democrats.)

The agreement calls for managing the oceans as one huge ecosystem that crosses political boundaries and requires cooperation and coordination among the three states and the federal government.

"We know that isolated local efforts cannot adequately address the breadth of degradation to our oceans," Gregoire said. "By cooperating, our three states will combine our resources and influence to make a real difference in the fight to clean and protect the oceans."

Among the specific action points in the agreement is this: "Send a joint message to the president and Congress reinforcing our opposition to oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development off our coasts." Good for the governors. On that point alone, the pact is worth the effort, especially so given the recent discovery of a rich oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, where drilling already is part of the political and the actual landscape.

Other point include urging Congress to provide pollution-fighting funds and assist the three states in getting technical help from federal agencies to deal with regional issues.

All of this might sound a bit gauzy. Cynics might write off the agreement as little more than environmental grandstanding by politicians with their eyes on their next election.

But the reality is that California, Oregon and Washington are becoming something of a model for the nation in working together to protect the environment. For example, with California in the lead, the three states have adopted new fuel-emission standards.

As Leon Panetta, chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission and former chief of staff to President Clinton, said Tuesday, the three states are far ahead of the federal government in addressing ocean threats.

"Our oceans are in crisis," Panetta said. "Unfortunately there isn't a lot of strong leadership on this issue coming out of Washington (D.C.), either from the president or from Congress.

"In that vacuum, we're seeing a lot of leadership being shown at the regional and state level."