The Salish Sea’s Southern Resident orcas, one of whom is shown above, are among the creatures impacted by tanker traffic from fossil fuel export projects in Washington. Photo credit: Kevin Nichols

I well remember back in 2021, when Washington’s Whatcom County made history by enacting one of the country’s strongest policy’s restricting new fossil fuel export infrastructure. The changes enacted to the county code marked the culmination of years of work, and the new policy replaced a temporary moratorium on all fossil fuel exports that had been in place since 2016. Now, local officials are trying to determine if a company that exports propane and butane from Whatcom County’s Cherry Point violated that moratorium.

My most recent story for Columbia Insight explores whether Canada-based AltaGas, and the company that preceded it at its Cherry Point property, expanded its fossil fuel export capacity with a series of projects undertaken between 2016 and 2021. This is part of a larger question about whether the company should have been required to produce a full Environmental Impact Statement before embarking on the projects. Each side in the debate recently had a chance to make their case in court–a drama described in my piece.

Read on in Columbia Insight for the full story.