Today the Oregonian's "Washington County Weekly" section ran a piece discussing the state of Washington County's global warming action plan (or lack thereof).  The gist of the article was this: while cities within its boundaries, like Hillsboro and Beaverton, are taking the initiative to put forward new programs that will reduce greenhouse gas pollutants, and networking with other local governments to inspire a truly regional movement to curb emissions at the local level, the Washington County government itself is lagging behind.

The article was authored by yours truly (link coming soon, but it doesn't seem to be on the Internet yet).  Considering my last post on this blog, commending Washington County for finally taking some steps in the right direction, does the above article description sound more like something I would have written a month ago?  Well, as it happens, I did write it more than a month ago, and the Oregonian only just now decided to run it.  So the article is a little outdated, but I stand by its basic message. 

Washington County is showing signs of moving in the right direction - and that's great.  You can urge them to keep up that good work RIGHT HERE.  But we've got a long way to go, and need to see verbal assurances translated into concrete policy.  One of the main points of the article I wrote was that the Washington County Board failed to send any of its members to Oregon's first Local Climate Action Workshop which took place, well, across the street from the county building (some workshop delegates came from as far away as Bend to participate).  Is the Board doing all it can to network with other local governments?  That's a difficult argument to make, after the Climate Workshop affair.  Maybe a day will come when I have nothing bad to say about the sustainability policies of the Washington County government.  However, while small steps in the right direction are worth of praise, that day is still a long way off.  I stand by almost all of what I said in the article.  If given the choice today between running it as-is and pulling it from the paper, I'd have chosen to run it.

Oh, and another of the main points of my article was the unresponsiveness of the majority of the Board members to citizen emails.  Today I sent messages to Commissioners Dick Schouten and Desari Strader, who are indeed now answering my emails, explaining that the Oregonian article was a little outdated.  As for the other three members of the Board - well, they've given no indication so far that they care about my opinions; a little article in the newspaper shouldn't bother them at all.