Last month, Whatcom County's seven-person county council passed a surprise moratorium on unrefined fossil fuel export project permits for 60 days. It was a last-ditch effort to buy some time while the council deliberated Whatcom's 20-year comprehensive plan—a plan that could either create room for fossil fuel export projects within the next two decades, or protect land and waters considered sacred to the Lummi Nation and crucial to the health of local ecosystems.

While the Lummi Nation successfully blocked what would have been the largest coal export terminal in North America at Cherry Point near Bellingham last month, Whatcom County is facing new pressures from fossil fuel export development after Congress lifted its 40-year ban on crude oil exports last year. Some Whatcom County Council members see the 20-year comprehensive plan an opportunity to prevent future projects like the coal export terminal, but not if long-term permits are submitted to the county while the 20-year plan is being formed.

In order to take a more long-term stand on fossil fuel export projects, the council will introduce a proposal to extend the ban for another six months. The proposed ordinance cites safety and environmental concerns about the transport of Bakken crude—the same material that was planned to flow through the now nationally-recognized Dakota Access Pipeline, under the Missouri River, and through the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's sacred sites. As with the proposed coal export facility, the ordinance cites protection of aquatic resources as a reason to oppose unrefined fossil fuel exports.

The pipeline resistance movement in North Dakota holds many parallels to the fossil fuel transportation and export battles here in Washington State. Just last week, the federal government agreed to halt local construction on the Dakota Access pipeline because of concerns expressed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their thousands of supporters at the Sacred Stone Camp. Earlier this year, the Lummi Nation succeeded in getting the US Army Corps of Engineers to reject a permit that would have allowed developers to build the largest coal export facility in North America on their ancestral lands.

Tribes hold unique legal standing in the United States because of their status as sovereign nations within our borders. And when tribes have the resources to go to court, or launch movements to protect local waters, their actions often have enormous rippling effects for non-native communities relying on the same natural resources.

But while tribal nations may consider the impact that fossil fuel projects may have on natural resources several generations out, this isn't a view that's been widely adopted by US county governments. In this case, it looks like Whatcom County is taking a cue from the Lummi Nation, and possibly using their authority to protect lands and waters that the Lummi alone cannot.

Read Whatcom County's proposed ordinance here.