News - Local News

POSTED: Friday, Oct. 02, 2009

Ranker: Federal government shouldn't overrule local policy on ocean protection

State Sen. Kevin Ranker says that local and state governments should be allowed to go further than federal laws allow to protect ocean natural resources.

That was part of the message Ranker, a Democrat whose 40th district includes the lower half of Whatcom County, took to the White House conference center on Sept. 24 as part of an invitation to speak with President Obama's Interagency Policy Taskforce. The group has 180 days to develop a national policy for the ocean, the coasts, and the Great Lakes.

The president created the task force with the goal to create a framework for improved federal policy coordination, implementing strategies to meet the goals of a national ocean policy and to recommend effective coastal and marine spatial planning.

"Frankly in Washington state we're already doing much of it," Ranker said of his message to federal officials.

Ranker touted the state as a national model, pointing to a balancing of projects in Puget Sound on protecting natural resources and marine life, developing potential tidal and wind energy projects while planning to protect fisheries and other commercial ventures, including major shipping superhighways.

Ranker is heavily involved in environmental policy work, particularly regarding oceans. He's a senior fellow at The Ocean Foundation, an ocean conservation organization based in D.C.; has been the chairman of the Coastal Counties Caucus, and was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to the Washington State Oil Spill Advisory Council.

The senator delivered comments on behalf of the state as well as a second set of joint comments of 180 state legislators from 30 coastal states in the country, except Alabama, to show a unified voice to the ocean policy task force.

Ranker said Alabama wasn't a part of it because, despite his connections on the issue, he doesn't know anyone from the state.

States also should be able to avoid federal laws that prevent them from doing more to protect natural resources, he said, and any federal strategies should be a "bottom-up" approach.

"These planning efforts, I don't think it's the state's duty or the feds' responsibility to tell local governments what's going to work best in their area," he said.

The state senator, heading into the second year of his freshman term, said that the northern portion of Puget Sound for years has had marine resource management policies and organizations, like the Whatcom County Marine Resource Committee, in place that are "excellent models in how to allow local communities to influence a federal discussion."

"It'll trickle up," he said.