Home PressNATSO News Weekly 3.20.09

NATSO Members Work Against I-5 Commercialization Legislation; NATSO’s Op-Ed Appears in Seattle Times

NATSO member Broadway Truck Service is leading a grassroots campaign against a bill in Washington state to allow commercial services on Interstate 5. Immediate past NATSO Chairman Dan Alsaker and Government Affairs Committee member Chet Reilly, and Washington Oil Marketers Association legislative committee chairman Tom Hemmingway (all with Broadway) are working to educate the government and other stakeholders about the threats posed by the legislation.

Introduced this month on behalf of Gov. Christine Gregoire (D), the legislation is part of a large environmental package. It directs the state to work with Oregon and California on developing infrastructure for electric vehicles and on a pilot project offering biofuels along state routes and on Interstate rights of way.

That pilot project was originally submitted by the three states last fall to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under its Special Experimental Project Number 15 (SEP-15). The legislation states that the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) could partner with both public and private facilities, and commercial activities are allowed “only as necessary to attain basic economic sufficiency.” The legislation, however, gives WSDOT no responsibility for capital costs or operating equipment, and the initiatives in the legislation are entirely dependent upon federal funding.

NATSO CEO Lisa Mullings’s op-ed for The Seattle Times appeared on March 18, in response to an article about Washington’s plan. Mullings wrote that California, Oregon and Washington, the three states submitting the proposal to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), should partner with I-5 businesses to further environmental goals instead of competing against them. 

Click here for the op-ed detailing alternatives available to the states and how crucial existing interstate businesses are to economic stability.