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Washington’s agriculture is a $12.8 billion business with 33,000 farms — and it runs on gasoline, diesel and natural gas. The thousands of big rigs hauling crops and food products are not electric.

Even though new trucks have reduced CO2 and other pollutants, some politicians are hastily charging ahead to replace fossil-fueled trucks with unproven technology.

According to 2021 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, transportation was responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse gases, of which 80 percent comes from cars and trucks. A quarter of the CO2 emitted in the transportation sector comes from medium and heavy-duty trucks.

Replacing diesel engines in long-haul trucks (Class 8) is expensive and a mammoth task. The Bureau of Transportation estimates there are 4.5 million big rigs operating in the U.S. They are the trucks and trailers we commonly see on our highways carrying cargo hundreds of miles and needing short refueling times — 15 minutes compared to an hour.

Specifically, long-distance haulers need a network of hydrogen fueling stations (like today’s truck stops) along with affordable trucks and fuel. Hub researchers’ added challenge is 95 percent of the hydrogen used in commercial vehicles comes from high-temperature steamed methane where CO2 is released.

Green hydrogen, absent from CO2, uses lots of electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen (electrolysis), but it is expensive. In 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) calculated green hydrogen production costs are more than three times higher when compared to manufacturing methane derived hydrogen.

Our state has an abundance of low-cost hydropower generated primarily by Columbia and Snake rivers dams. Surplus electricity from renewable sources could be directed to electrolysis plants.

For example, Douglas County Public Utility District (PUD) is spending $20 million to build a renewable hydrogen production plant near Wenatchee. It uses surplus power from Wells Dam and was funded by a grant from the Washington Legislature.

Hydrogen and battery powered trucks are expensive to purchase even with Washington state’s commercial vehicle tax credit covering up to $100,000 of the incremental cost for new alternative fuel vehicles. Even with those taxpayer subsidies, those rigs could be beyond what struggling farm families can afford.

According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the purchase price of a Class 8 hydrogen was $359,500, compared to $474,900 for a battery operated, and $143,500 for diesels. The added research should benefit truck manufacturers as well. PACCAR’s Renton plant assembles Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks and Oregon is where Daimler Portland’s factory makes Freightliners.

Nikola Motors, a U.S. maker of hydrogen trucks, claims its vehicles get 12 to 15 miles per gallon (mpg), well above the average 6.4 mpg for a diesel truck. Two years ago, Nikola Motors, based in Phoenix, announced it launched a roadmap for 700 fueling stations across our country.

European Union leaders are already investing heavily in hydrogen fuel research believing it is key to eliminating CO2 discharges from vehicles.

For example, one innovative technology is called pyrolysis. Hopefully, it will allow Europeans to pipe hydrogen as natural gas now travels long distances across the country and under water. Hydrogen created by pyrolysis is an adaptation of an industrial process developed over the years. It was designed to remove CO2 from the process by creating charred wood and organic matter.

Developing hydrogen into a commercially viable fuel takes money — lots of it. Europeans are relying on hydrogen fuel technologies to lead the way to substantial greenhouse gas reductions and a sizable chunk of the European Union’s €11 billion ($13.3 billion) climate initiative centers on hydrogen.

Hopefully, now that hydrogen technology is growing in acceptance, there will be greater attention to accelerating research and development, scaling up production, finding ways to reduce costs, and it will be well-tested before it is mandated.

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Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He is a former president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and lives in Vancouver. Contact thebrunells@msn.com.

I agree with Washington state Sen. John Braun of the 20th Legislative District in his Nov. 9 op-ed. “Let's go to work!”

Braun has been allowed more than ample space on the opinion pages of The Chronicle to convince the voters to vote yes on all four initiatives on the ballot of the Nov. 5 general election. There is another side to the initiatives than those of Braun.

Take Initiative 2124 to start.

Who isn't going to need long-term health care? A few fortunate folks can afford it but many more can't afford private long-term health care. It seems ironic to me that Braun would prefer the current system. The majority of the folks needing care consistently are being paid for by the taxpayers.

Unfortunately, health care needs to rise to 58 cents per $100 of contributions, which seems like a wise start for a program designed to allow folks to pay into their own health care plan. The center of the broad concerns always seems to be for the saving of the constituents’ hard-earned money, and his plan is the opposite.

He talks of serving the taxpayers, saving the taxpayers money, but not implementing a long-term health care plan that will save the citizens of the state millions of dollars over time.

Regarding Initiative 2109, if passed it would have made approximately 4,000 well-to-do citizens of this state exempt from paying approximately 7% capital gains tax on sales of bonds, stock, etc., of profit over $262,000.

It excludes revenue from real estate plus retirement accounts. Up to $500 million of this tax goes to schools, early learning and child development programs. By approximately 63% to 36%, Washington voters said no to Initiative 2109.

In all of Braun’s op-eds, he never mentioned anything about a millionaire funding the four initiative bills.

The millionaire (Brian Heywood) paid for hundreds of signature gatherers to sometimes misrepresent the intent of the initiatives to voters, entering and exiting many places of business in the state. He only mentioned the well-to-do financing of the “vote no” campaigns on the initiatives.

So please, when given more than ample space to write, try doing a more well-rounded version of what's going on in this state.

Braun also was in favor of Initiative 2117, the cap and tax bill. The intended design was to curb carbon emissions over time.

If we don't think of ways and try to do some emission control soon, then what amount of money will be spent on the warming-caused tragedies all over the world?

And health care costs on top of the catastrophic events.

Again, Braun needs to tell more than one side of the story.

Brian S. Dow

Centralia

The left hates the right and the right hates the left.

There is no middle ground.

I was a Democrat until King Obama and Queen Inslee took office, and then I opened my eyes and became a Republican, never voting blue ever again.

After taking a deep look at myself, I see myself falling into this category of highly not liking the left.

To me, the left seems weak. They cannot describe what a female is, they want males to play against our daughters in sports, they don’t know what bathroom to use, they want our guns and they dictate what kind of vehicles we drive.

The last election proved that voters didn’t like what the left was offering and saw through the lies that were being told.

The voters were pretty loud about it. This is a turning point for our country. I am feeling hope for our country now.

Andrew Boehm

Centralia

Letter writer Trisha Reeves thinks landlords are greedy.

When the cost of doing business increases because of changes in supply and demand or because some elitist government agency requires property owners to ignore market realities, the additional cost is passed along to the consumer.

It’s not greed. It’s government.

Thomas Higdon

Clark County

The Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources has reapproved legislation that increased monitoring of Washington’s five active volcanoes.

On Wednesday, the committee reauthorized the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System Act, which was first adopted in 2019. The legislation includes improvements to the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Vancouver, which helps the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitor volcanic activity throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington.

“The State of Washington is home to four of the most dangerous volcanoes in the nation,” Cantwell said. “This bill ensures we have the right science and monitoring in place to keep our communities informed, help mitigate future threats, and save lives.”

Washington is home to five active volcanoes, which include Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Glacier Peak, Mount Baker and Mount Adams. While Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier rank among the most dangerous volcanoes in the country, Mount Adams has perhaps drawn the most concern recently.

Last month, U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, wrote to the USGS to enhance seismic monitoring of volcanoes across the country, which came after the USGS reported a recent increase in seismic activity at the mountain.

In September, a seismic station near the volcano recorded six earthquakes between magnitude 0.9 and 2.0. The earthquakes were the most activity recorded at Mount Adams in any month since monitoring began in 1982.

Following the activity, the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network installed additional temporary seismic stations to the south and southwest of Mount Adams, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle.

“Any surge in seismic activity heightens our community’s concern about larger earthquakes and volcanic activity, and the potentially devastating impacts to families and vulnerable infrastructure like the structurally deficient I-5 Bridge. It is critical that USGS take these concerns seriously, answer our communities’ questions, and enhance monitoring of volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest,” Reps. Gluesenkamp Perez and Newhouse wrote.

In the letter, the lawmakers requested additional information from the USGS, including the number of seismic stations around Mount Adams, the length of time the agency plans to operate temporary stations and whether the agency has enhanced at other volcanoes in the region.

“It is critical that USGS take these concerns seriously, answer our communities’ questions and enhance monitoring of volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest,” the letter states.

According to Cantwell’s office, the CVO will soon complete the permitting process with Gifford Pinchot National Forest for five new real-time volcano monitoring stations along the White Salmon drainage.

Since the legislation’s initial passage, the CVO has installed six new real-time volcano monitoring stations at Mount St. Helens.

On Friday, the USGS announced that all volcanoes in the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington had returned to normal background activity levels. In the announcement, the USGS stated that small earthquakes had been detected at Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, and Mount Adams that were consistent with background activity levels.

The National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System Act was cosponsored by Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Senator Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii. The legislation will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

A 19-year-old man charged for murdering 30-year-old Navjot Singh at a Toledo area Shell station during an attempted robbery in May 2023 was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison.

Quinton M. Ramey pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges on Nov. 15 and was sentenced that same day.

He and his codefendant, 18-year-old Taylor K. Lenihan, both of Redding, California, were arrested in Sumner just after 12:55 a.m. on May 4, 2023, and were charged the next day as adults in Lewis County Superior Court with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of a stolen firearm and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm charges.

Ramey and Lenihan were 17 and 16 years old, respectively, at the time of the incident.

Surveillance footage of the Shell station reportedly shows Singh restocking shelves when, at approximately 8:46 p.m. on May 3, two individuals wearing masks and gloves entered the store. One individual was reportedly wearing a light-colored T-shirt and holding “a long gun with an extended magazine,” while the other was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt and holding “a bag and flex-cuffs,” according to court documents.

The individual holding the gun reportedly pointed the gun at Singh, who is then seen walking toward the cash register.

Singh then reportedly “turns his back towards the gunman and starts to struggle over the firearm,” according to court documents.

The struggle moved offscreen, but the surveillance camera reportedly captured footage of the individual in the hoodie “point(ing) something towards the struggle” before both individuals ran out of the store, got into a white Dodge truck with a temporary license plate and camping gear in the bed and then drove off.

A separate camera from the parking lot reportedly showed the truck pull into the parking lot from the west at 8:45 p.m. on May 3, roll through the parking lot, circle a second time, stop and reverse before the two individuals exit the vehicle and go into the store.

At about 8:49 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3, Lewis County 911 received a call from a passerby indicating they saw two masked individuals running out of a store in the 100 block of Mulford Road.

The caller also reported the two individuals left in a white, extended-cab Dodge pickup truck and said their actions “appeared suspicious,” according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. 

Deputies were dispatched at approximately 8:52 p.m. on May 3.

Court documents identify the first-arriving officer as Lewis County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew G. Scrivner, who got to the scene at approximately 9:11 p.m.

When he arrived, Scrivner was “advised there was a person down, not breathing” and he “immediately requested aid units and detectives,” according to court documents. Scrivner stated he believed Singh had suffered a shotgun wound to the chest.

Medical aid arrived and declared Singh deceased at 9:27 p.m. on May 3, according to court documents.

At about 12:20 p.m. on May 4, a Florence, Oregon law enforcement agency contacted the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office to report “its belief the vehicle and suspects involved in the Toledo area death potentially matched an incident there,” according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

“They further advised the vehicle and suspects involved in their incident had been located by authorities with the Sumner Police Department and were currently in custody,” the sheriff’s office reported.

In the back seat of the car, which was identified as a stolen vehicle, was “a long gun” that matched the description of a firearm used during the Toledo robbery, according to court documents.

“Detectives were able to contact the Sumner Police Department and were able to confirm the vehicle, firearm and suspect information were consistent with the homicide investigation occurring in Lewis County,” according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

A third juvenile, who was 15 years old at the time of incident, was arrested and charged in Lewis County Juvenile Court.

Juvenile court records are not accessible to the public.

Ramey was sentenced to 192 months on the first-degree murder charge and six months on the robbery charge, to run concurrently. He is additionally ordered to serve 36 months of probation and to register as a felony firearm offender upon his release.

Lenihan pleaded guilty May 15, 2023, to one count each of first-degree robbery, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm. Her sentencing, which was delayed until her codefendant’s case was resolved, is scheduled for 8:40 a.m. on Nov. 27.