Gregoire Blames Environmentalists For Viaduct Delays

On Up Front with Robert Mak, Governor Gregoire was asked if the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is the biggest public safety threat in Seattle, why has nothing been done for the last seven years, including three years with her as governor?

Gregoire said, yes, it is the most threat, and that there were two reasons why it's not been fixed yet: first, because Transportation was not reporting directly to her until 2005, and second, because if they didn't do environmental impact studies, they'd get sued.

Unfortunately, she does not take the next logical step and say that our current environmental impact study process is clearly doing more potential harm than good. So we'll continue to waste time and money and, potentially, lives, by bowing to the altar of Gaia. Of course, that's not to say that we should completely ignore the environment. But we clearly take it way too far, often doubling the time and cost of projects, for no clear benefit whatsoever.