January 2016
PNWER Capital Visits
PNWER Delegations advance regional initatives in Salem, Boise and Olympia
PNWER's delegation to Salem  visited with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, fourth from the right, and included, from left, PNWER Executive Director Matt Morrison, Private Sector Council Representative Colin Smith, past president of APEGS, PNWER President Sen. Curt McKenzie, Idaho, PNWER Vice President Sen. Arnie Roblan, Rep. Deborah Boone and PNWER Program Manager Megan Levy and Private Sector Co-Chair Dan Kirschner, executive director of the Northwest Gas Association. 
Region-wide issues
Invasive species

One issue we discussed with state lawmakers and officials in Salem, Olympia and Boise is PNWER's major recent achievement in the fight to keep invasive mussels out of the Pacific Northwest. 

Thanks in large part to PNWER's coordination of a Regional Framework for Perimeter Defense and conversations with legislators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington D.C., congress appropriated $4 million within the federal omnibus budget for watercraft inspection stations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. 

The federal funds, administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, will require a one-to-one funding match from the states. 


The Pacific Northwest is the only region in the United States that does not have established
populations of invasive quagga or zebra mussels, which multiply quickly and are easily transported across jurisdictions on boat hulls and in ballast tanks. 

Economic impact studies project that an introduction of these mussels to the region will disrupt native fish habitats, destroy aquatic ecosystems and rapidly foul and damage the operations of hydropower, irrigation, fish hatcheries, and municipal water facilities vital to our economy at a cost of $500 million annually.
Oly 16 Nelson
Sen. Curt McKenzie briefs Washington Senate Democratic Leader Sharon Nelson on PNWER's recent win for invasive species and talks about the importance of state funding to match the federal appropriation.

During capital visits, we stressed the importance of continued federal funding for the effort within the 2017 budget and provided draft resolutions supporting federal funding requests to state legislatures. PNWER will be offering input to the Army Corps of Engineers as implementation moves forward and will advocate for a regional perimeter defense.
 
Infrastructure finance

Another focus of PNWER Delegations was to raise awareness of and participation in PNWER's Innovative Infrastructure Finance Taskforce. The taskforce is a new initative taken up by PNWER President Sen. Curt McKenzie, Idaho, and our Transportation Working Group to study and learn from projects with effective public-private funding mechanisms within the PNWER region. 

Partnering with private funding sources has found success in Canada and select U.S. states, but a lack of regulation harmonization and disparate financing laws between PNWER U.S. member states presents challenges in coordinating infrastructure and transportation planning efforts. A PNWER-based Innovative Infrastructure Finance task force can play an important role in sharing best practices for public-private infrastructure financing and the public benefits of utilizing new models of infrastructure finance.

The taskforce will include an inventory of infastructure finance projects in the 10-jurisdiction region and will study lessons learned for each to help advance similar initiatives. Training calls with PNWER legislators, government staff and private-sector members will be held to expand education efforts, and a pre-Summit tour of projects in British Columbia and Alberta will take place immidiately before the 2016 PNWER Annual Summit begins on July 17 in Calgary, Alberta.

The first webinar will take start at 10 a.m. PST Feb. 9. Register at http://bit.ly/pnweriif

Please email [email protected] if you are interested in participating in this taskforce.

Legislative Energy Horizon Institute

A group of participants in the 2015 LEHI class in Richland, Washington, toured a working wind farm as part of their intensive course in energy policy. 
Delegates also spread the word to state legislative leadership and energy committees about PNWER's Legislative Energy Horizon Institute, taking place July 22-26 in Richland, Washington and Nov. 9-12 in Washington, D.C. 

Visit www.pnwer.org/energyhorizon for more information. Interested legislators should talk to their colleagues who are alumni and leadership about participating in the 2016 institute. 

Salem
A PNWER Delegation traveled to Salem, Oregon January 13-14 to discuss ongoing initatives and upcoming PNWER events with Governor Kate Brown (pictured fourth from the right below), various legislative committee chairs, Oregon legislators and emergency management leadership.
PNWER President Sen. Curt McKenzie, Idaho and
PNWER Vice President Sen. Arnie Roblan, Oregon,
discuss the upcoming 2017 PNWER Summit in Portland with Oregon Governor Kate Brown. 

Sen. Roblan informed Gov. Brown of PNWER's upcoming 2017 Summit in Portland, for which he is already organizing a host committee and private sector support. The governor was excited to host the Summit in Oregon. The delegation also updated the governor on PNWER's major recent achievement in the fight to keep invasive mussels out of the Pacific Northwest. 

The delegation met with Rep. Brad Witt, Chair of the House Interim Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, to discuss an upcoming Oil Rail Safety Symposium, held by PNWER's Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR) on April 27. Delegates also met with Senate President Sen. Peter Courtney, who offered his support for the 2017 Summit.

During a meeting with Oregon Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps, PNWER delegates recapped our 2015 excercises in Washington and Idaho to improve regional cybersecurity and discussed assisting Oregon in their efforts to engage private critical infrastructure operators in resilience planning.  

A dinner with LEHI Alumni focused on how past attendees can continue their education in energy policy and sought their guidance on developing LEHI Alumni activities, as well as asking for their assistance in recruiting next year's class. 
Olympia
Oly 16 Brad OwenFrom right, Sen. Arnie Roblan and Sen. Curt McKenzie talk with Washington Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen about regional PNWER initiatives with impacts in Washington. 

The delegation visited Olympia January 18-20. A meeting with Washington Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen gave the delegation an opportunity to speak to PNWER's progress in defending against invasive species, our efforts to coordinate preclearance implementation through our preclearance taskforce, our Emerald Down cybersecurity excercise held last year in Auburn and our upcoming Oil Train Safety Symposium, taking place April 27 in Tacoma. 

Oly 16 Leg lunch
A legislative lunch in Olympia brought together more than 25 state legislators to learn about PNWER programs and opportunitites to get involved. 

A meeting with Senate Democratic leader Sen. Sharon Nelson gave our delegation a chance to talk about invasive species, the oil train safety symposium, and a proposal by Sen. Maralyn Chase to establish a PNWER Council in Washington to investigate possible avenues to expand cross-border partnerships on substantive issues. 

Rep. Mike Cuffe presented on our invasive species initiatives to the Washington House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. 

Oly 16 Moscoso
Rep. Luis Moscoso,(left) and Sen. Maralyn Chase, (not pictured) co-chairs of the Washington Rail Caucus, met with the PNWER Delegation in Olympia, including Executive Director Matt Morrison, Rep. Mike Cuffe, Montana, and Rob Eaton, Senior Manager of Government Affairs, Amtrak, to discuss PNWER's preclearance task force, infrastructure finance and the Oil Train Safety Symposium. PNWER's preclearance task force was organized in 2014 and has monthly calls to help coordinate between transportation and tourism operators and border officials on preclearance implementation.

Rob Eaton, Ron Pate, rail director for the Washington State Department of Transportation, and Brandon Hardenbrook presented on our preclearance taskforce and infrastructure finance initiatives at a Senate Transportation Committee Hearing. 

See our testimony here!
Boise 
Boise 2016
From left, PNWER Executive Dierector and PNWER Idaho Delegate Sen. Chuck Winder meet with the Idaho PNWER Council, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Brad Little, to discuss PNWER's achievements and initiatives in Idaho.

In Boise, delegates met with Lieutenant Governor Brad Little to discuss PNWER initiatives in invasive species, infrastructure finance, the Columbia River Treaty and cybersecurity. Last October, PNWER and the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security held the Idaho Cybersecurity Interdependencies Workshop for more than 130 public and private sector stakeholders in Boise, the second of three PNWER cyber preparedness events in Idaho. 

Delegates met with Rep. Thomas Loertscher to discuss PNWER's ongoing parternship with the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security and PNWER Program Manager Megan Levy presented on our Infrastructure Finance task force to the Senate Transportation Committee. 















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ABOUT PNWERabout
The Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) was created in 1991 by the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. 

It is a statutory public/private non-profit dedicated to increasing the economic well-being and quality of life for all citizens of the region, while maintaining and enhancing our natural environment.

Our overarching goals are to:
  • Coordinate provincial and state policies throughout the region
  • Identify and promote "models of success"
  • Serve as a conduit to exchange information.
  • Promote greater regional collaboration
  • Enhance the competitiveness of the region in both domestic and international markets
  • Leverage regional influence in Ottawa and Washington D.C.
  • Achieve continued economic growth while maintaining the region's natural environment
We will be heading to Calgary for our 2016 Summit on July 17-21, right after the famous Calgary Stampede, to confront the biggest regional challenges to trade, economic growth, industry, employment and the environment. 

PNWER's 21 working groups develop yearly action items at our Summits to continually advance policy initiatives with public and private stakeholders. 

Learn more at PNWER.org
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