Keeping gun companies immune from liability makes no sense, said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, when asked about mass shootings at a news briefing in Tri-Cities this week.
He said he'll be looking at measures to protect against shootings. And he also answered questions about his study on breaching the lower Snake River dams, inadequate money for Hanford nuclear reservation cleanup and COVID-19.
Washington state has taken major steps to curb gun violence, but there are additional measures that are being considered, he said.
Since Initiative 1639 took effect in Washington in 2019, people must be 21 years old to buy a semiautomatic assault rifle in the state.
That could have prevented the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, Inslee said.
The gunman legally bought semiautomatic assault rifles on the first and fourth days after his 18th birthday.
"To me there ought to be consideration of these gun companies that are making millions of dollars while advertising, sort of promoting, the idea of recreational violence," Inslee said.
He's also interested in looking into alternatives for checks for gun purchases, he said.
Changes to gun laws would be more effective at the federal level than at the state level, since Washington gun purchase restrictions can be circumvented by driving across a state line, he said.
"But unfortunately the Republican party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association," Inslee said.
Snake River dams
A joint federal and Washington state assessment to determine how to replace the benefits of the four lower Snake River dams should be released for public comment soon, Inslee said.
In 2020 an extensive, multi-year environmental study by federal scientist and engineers concluded that other options than breaching the dams from Ice Harbor Dam near the Tri-Cities upriver to Lower Granite Dam near Lewiston, Idaho, should be used to help restore wild salmon runs.
"The conclusion of that extensive study was that breaching the dams is not in the best interest of society from a climate, cost and grid reliability perspective, especially given the highly uncertain benefits for salmon," Northwest RiverPartners said when Murray and Inslee began discussing their planned assessment of options to replace the benefits provided by the four dams.
The dams provide inexpensive, clean and reliable hydropower and allow goods to be barged on the river, say their supporters. An estimated 10% of total annual U.S. wheat exports each year passes through the locks at the four lower Snake River dams, according to U.S. Wheat Associates.
In a guest opinion published recently in the Tri-City Herald, Rick Dunn, general manager of the Benton Public Utility District, decried the "politicization of energy and environmental issues."
Dunn said the study recommendation not to breach the dams were reached by those who are responsible for planning and operating the power grid comprehensively.
But Inslee said during his Tri-Cities visit that, "Sen. Murray and I share a view that we ought to be wiling to look at what would be required to replace the services of these dams.
"I'm glad we are doing it and have an administration willing to look at the science," he said.
The overriding failure of the Trump administration, under which the environmental study was completed, was a refusal to follow science, he said.
"And anyone who trusted Donald Trump's administration to make a decision on science would be buying the Brooklyn Bridge," he said.
Inslee and COVID
Inslee visited the Tri-Cities eight days after a positive COVID-19 test, saying he had tested negative for the coronavirus for five days as of Thursday.
He said he believed he was safe to visit, and he wore a face mask for much of the visit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying home for five days and then wearing a face mask for the next five days after COVID-19 symptoms develop, plus no domestic travel for those 10 days. Inslee did not say when he developed symptoms.
He said he was vaccinated and boosted and had taken Paxlovid, an antiviral pill to treat COVID-19, all steps recommended to prevent serious cases of the disease.
As COVID-19 cases are again on the increase in Washington state — but far below earlier peaks — Inslee said no mandates, such as previous state mask requirements, are under consideration or anticipated.
But he can't entirely eliminate the possibility that there might come a time when mandates are needed again because "the virus is a squirrelly beast."
He's pleased with the progress the state has made against COVID-19, but would like to see more people get COVID-19 booster shots, he said.
Hanford site funding
The Hanford site provides the opportunity for the Tri-Cities to become a clean energy hub, the governor said after meeting with tribal officials, environmental groups and the Tri-City Development Council. He also toured the 580-square-mile nuclear reservation.
But first the federal government needs to step up its funding for environmental cleanup of the site used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
He's calling on the Biden administration to increase its proposed cleanup budget for the Hanford site, which has been around $2.5 billion in recent years, to $3.76 billion for fiscal 2024.
That's the amount needed to meet legal requirements set by the Tri-Party Agreement and a federal court consent decree, according to the Washington state Department of Ecology.
DOE's latest Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report calls for a minimum of $800 million more than that in fiscal 2024.
TRIDEC points out that by that fiscal year the vitrification plant, where construction started in 2002, should be finally treating some low level radioactive waste for permanent disposal and should be making progress toward engineering needed to also treat high-level radioactive waste. That's in addition to other ongoing cleanup work across the site.
Delaying cleanup work because of insufficient spending, drives up the cost, Inslee said.
Up to half of Hanford's budget is spent on maintenance activities, including security, fire prevention, utilities and upkeep of roads.
Underfunding means proportionally more money spent on keeping operations going and less on getting cleanup done, according to the Department of Ecology.
Hanford environmental justice
Inslee is pitching the Biden administration on the need for larger budgets not only as a long-term cost savings and an opportunity to help achieve the nation's clean energy goals, but as an environmental justice issue.
Like clean energy, environmental justice is an issue important to the current administration.
"The populations around the Hanford site include people who may be more vulnerable to impacts, may not have access to information about potential health risks related to the site, or may not have the resources to protect themselves and their families, especially in an emergency," according to the Department of Ecology.
Pasco, for instance, has a population that is 63% people of color, 38% low income, 52% who don't speak English at home and 25% with less than a high school education.
