A Cautionary California Tale for the Pacific Northwest

By Jordan Royer, Vice President External Affairs, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association

For many years, Washingtonians have had an uneasy relationship with Californians moving here. There was a fear that Washington State would turn into a California facsimile – complete with traffic, dirty air,  and a higher cost of living. In the 1980’s the leader of the backlash was a columnist with the Seattle Times named Emmet Watson. He led a movement called Lesser Seattle and admonished readers to “Mount the ramparts – fight Californication!” The slogan for Lesser Seattle was: Have a nice day – somewhere else.

In 2026, there are few who remember Emmet – even those who slurp oysters at his oyster bar in Pike Place Market. But it is interesting to note that when policies are shaped in California, they usually wind up moving north for consideration.

We are not immune when it comes to freight transportation, ports, and international shipping. For example, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passes a new regulation, Washington legislators and environmentalists  frequently attempt to do the same here. On the heels of Washington’s ordeals with the use of California standards for our heavy duty truck fleet, which were thankfully pulled back, the latest examples have been proposals to impose vessel fuel rules as a back-door water quality control mechanism and California’s at-berth rule, which requires nearly all container and cruise vessels to plug in for power when at the dock. The only problem is that the ports in Washington rarely have the infrastructure to offer the service. Ports and industry partners are working on it, but it takes time and money. And small ports don’t have the resources to do it. Also, the California rules were originally passed almost 20 years ago.  Now vessels are experimenting with zero and near-zero carbon emissions fuels which make the costly shoreside infrastructure necessary for plug-in technology much less attractive and cost-effective in the long term. But the California copy-cat bill has nevertheless been introduced in the last two legislative sessions and may yet be seen again. As the saying goes: If you’re going to have a heart attack do it in Olympia. Because nothing ever dies in Olympia.

The push , to implement California-style rules here are usually overkill for several reasons.  First, they fail to account for the existing progress and collaborative processes industry, the ports, and local environmental groups have been a part of, including since 2004 the NW Ports Clean Air Strategy. Second, the situation just simply is already improving without these rules.  Through our air emissions inventory we have shown a steady decline in air emissions, including a reduction in greenhouse gases. After each inventory, we all work together for further improvement which we can measure. Instead of California style mandates, Washington style collaboration and support would be the best approach.  Finally, the California standards are written to solve California problems.  Even if a regulatory approach were appropriate in Washington, there is no need for our economy to bear the burdens of a rule written to reduce smog, NOx, and ozone, like a rule written to clean up the Southern California air, because we don’t suffer from smog, NOx, and ozone problems. Our clean air focus is on decarbonization, but California writes its rules to reduce local, public health and criteria pollutants.

Unfortunately, and despite these differences, our state appears to be becoming more and more like California. You might say, what’s wrong with that?

Journalist Fareed Zakarria recently authored a piece called: “California – A Case Study in Failed Governance.” It’s worth watching and reading.  In his piece, he outlines by the numbers how government is failing the people:

“Since 2000, California’s population has grown by roughly 15 percent. But the state’s general expenditures have grown more than 200 percent, from $78 billion to about $248 billion. General spending per person has risen from about $2,300 to about $6,300. The number of state employees has grown by more than 50 percent by one count. Does anyone think that California’s government and its benefits have gotten 200 percent better in the last 25 years?”

Couple the unsustainable spending increases with falling test scores for children and rising numbers of homeless people on the streets and nation leading outbound migration numbers - it’s easy to see that something is deeply wrong. Even the state’s iconic movie industry is being hollowed out. From Mr. Zakarria’s piece:

“Michael Lynton, who ran Sony Entertainment, told me that the big studio lots look like ghost towns now, with tens of acres of soundstages and recording studios where nothing is happening. He said Los Angeles is becoming ‘a sunny version of Detroit.’”

In our state, our legislature struggles every year with deficits; Governor Bob Ferguson has called our current budget status unsustainable. Former Governor, Chris Gregoire recently said:

“I left office with a budget of 33 billion, and the budget today is 80 billion. I think that's a little bit too much of a growth. And yet how we find ourselves at the end of every legislative session now is in the hole and projected to be in the hole."

And like Mr. Zakarria asked of Californians, have things gotten better? It’s hard to see how we can return to the Washington State that Emmet Watson loved so much (yes, even curmudgeons can love). As Washingtonians, we owe it to ourselves to continue to try to chart our own path forward rather than look to California, or any other state for that matter, as a model to copy cat.  If nothing else, we should view California  as a cautionary tale.