As Kramer said, without rules, there's chaos. You may recall my skeptical post on Gov. Gregoire's vague ban on rulemaking which could shape up to not be the predicted "big fat nothingburger." Now is your chance to submit comments regarding the ban and state environmental groups are now speaking up in response since they could be the most impacted.

Below is the message from the Director Of Ecology, seeking comments. Stay tuned:

As part of Governor Gregoire's Executive Order (10-06) to temporarily suspend non-critical rule development, her policy office issued guidelines to help agencies decide which rules should be suspended.

Today, Ecology posted its initial determination of which rule-making should move ahead and those that should be delayed for a year. These are in addition to Ecology's Nov. 17, 2010 announcement of the first group of rules that would proceed. The list will include several rules that Ecology anticipates to be under development in 2011.

I believe it's important that these decisions are made sooner rather than later to help foster stability and predictability for stakeholders, and allow Ecology to plan and prioritize staff workload.

I'd like your feedback on our initial determination list between now and Friday (Dec. 3). Send comments to rulemaking@ecy.wa.gov.  I intend to announce our final decision on Monday, Dec. 6. You can also find this information on our Rule-making suspension information page:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/laws-rules/rulemaking_suspension.html.

Thanks for your participation in Ecology's rule-making work.

Thank you,

Ted Sturdevant, Director
Department of Ecology

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