In April, I provided a summary of SSB 6406, dubbed the Natural Resources Reform Bill.  This Washington State legislation made changes to natural resource and environmental review and permitting, and was passed by the legislature on April 10, 2012.  On May 2, 2012 Governor Gregoire signed the bill into law, but added a signing statement  clarifying one section and explaining her veto of two other sections.

In the signing statement, the Governor discussed the intent of Section 301, which requires the Department of Ecology to revise the SEPA environmental checklist, but to “not include any new subjects into the scope of the checklist, including climate change and greenhouse gases.”  The Governor emphasized that this statement was not meant to change the procedures of SEPA review or preclude consideration of climate change or greenhouse gas impacts; rather the statement simply prevented the Department of Ecology from adding additional SEPA checklist elements at this time.  Without this understanding, she writes, she would have vetoed this section.

The Governor did veto Sections 305 and 306, which concerned local government cost recovery for SEPA work.  After several legislative amendments, the resulting language contained inconsistencies that could lead to confusion.  For this reason, the Governor vetoed these sections.