Seattle Times throws bus drivers, riders under the bus

The Seattle Times' editorial position on the $20 car tab tax for King County Metro transit service is really quite shocking.

Here it is, a vital public infrastructure component, just as vital as water, electricity and sewers, but transit is something the Times has decided ought to be starved ( http://bit.ly/pcYZ8X ). The paper:

Baby gets bad welcome gift

The most important regional environmental news of the past week was the arrival of a new Orca baby in Puget Sound, K-44 (http://goo.gl/9S9xs). Welcome baby boy!

However, the good news is balanced by an item from the previous week, concerning the results of last month's tabletop oil spill response drill:

"The drill showed procedures introducing oil dispersants on a spill need improving." (http://goo.gl/Yw1mg)

We ought to be alarmed state and federal authorities are talking about dispersants at all. First, as we now know from the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, dispersants don't remove the oil, they only make the oil invisible. Second, dispersants kill phytoplankton and bacteria in the food chain.

And third: DISPERSANTS ARE ILLEGAL in Puget Sound (http://goo.gl/G6GMP).