A few years back, a guy who worked the North Slope oil fields tossed me some advice when dealing with the oil industry on oil pollution issues in Puget Sound. For oil guys, he told me, the world's made up either of oil guys or hippies. If you're not an oil guy, you're a hippie and you don't know anything.

So, that's instructive when the oil guys and their political shills start representing 'the public interest' in opposing something like the Working for Clean Water bill, HB1614. Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-42) repeats and repeats the industry line that Working for Clean Water "would tax local refineries to help pay for more stormwater retrofit projects. [He] believes the tax is unfair and burdensome in a tough economy, and that state agencies that support it have overinflated figures to make their case for it." (Bellingham Herald, Jan 10, 2010.)

Oil guys lie: HB1614 is a small fee (not a tax) on oil paid for by the industry at the refineries, not at the gas pump. That fee goes to helping local governments reduce pollution from storm water. That fee will offset local property and utility tax burdens, bring jobs to local economies, and clean up the storm water pollution that threatens our health and that of our rivers, bays and Puget Sound. That's the truth, and that’s exactly the kind of legislation our elected representatives should be working for in this kind of economy.