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Tom Banse

Regional Correspondent

About

Tom Banse covers national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports, and human interest stories across Washington state. Now semi-retired, Banse is an Olympia-based reporter with more than three decades of experience covering the Pacific Northwest. Most of his career was spent with public radio's Northwest News Network, but now in semi-retirement his work appears on multiple nonprofit news outlets including KUOW. His recent areas of focus range from transportation, U.S.-Canada borderlands, the Northwest region's planned hydrogen hub, and emergency preparedness.

Previously, Tom covered state government and the Washington Legislature for 12 years. He got his start in radio at WCAL-FM, a public station in southern Minnesota. Reared in Seattle, Tom graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in American Studies.

Location: Olympia

Languages: English, German

Stories

  • caption: The Universal Hydrogen flight test crew posed for pictures after a successful first flight of the company's hydrogen-electric Dash 8 airliner on March 2, 2023.
    Technology

    Hydrogen-powered airliner makes first flight at Moses Lake

    The largest aircraft yet to fly on hydrogen-electric power made a successful first flight Thursday at Moses Lake, Washington. The maiden flight of a converted turboprop airliner offered a preview of one possible pathway for how to make your future flights more eco-friendly. Hydrogen fuel is one of several options the aviation industry is testing to reduce its carbon footprint, but the technology still attracts notable skepticism.
  • caption: Bull kelp routinely washes up on West Coast beaches after storms, but there are more reasons to worry about the health of the kelp forests just offshore.

    Struggling Northwest kelp forests sending out an SOS. Help is coming

    There's a rallying cry at various bays and beaches up and down the West Coast; it's "Help the kelp!" The towering brown seaweed with the floating bulb on top is in steep decline. That's alarming because underwater kelp forests provide shelter and food for a wide variety of sea life. The crew answering the call runs the gamut from seaweed farmers to hammer-wielding scuba divers and might some day include sea otters and octopuses.
  • Untitled
    Government

    Democratic lawmakers steer pay-per-mile into slow lane to replace gas tax, eventually

    Would you prefer to pay a couple of cents for every mile you drive in exchange for not having to pay gas tax or those steep electric car registration fees? A mileage-based tax is the top choice of Pacific Northwest policymakers to make up for the long-term decline in gas tax revenue. But imposition of any new tax tends to be politically fraught, and this one is no exception.
  • caption: Portland Fire & Rescue would be the second department nationally to take delivery of an electric fire engine built by Pierce Manufacturing. This is the first one in service with the Madison Fire Department in Wisconsin.

    Fire trucks are going electric, too. Portland and Redmond, WA, getting there first

    You probably no longer blink an eye when an electric car passes by on the road. More novel battery-powered vehicles are soon joining the parade to help operators achieve their sustainability goals. Electric ferries are coming to Puget Sound and hybrid electric airplanes are being tested in Washington. Now, several Pacific Northwest fire departments have ordered their first electric fire trucks.
  • caption: A Columbia Plateau cactus, aka basalt cactus, pictured growing near Mitchell in eastern Oregon in 2021. This native Northwest cactus species could soon be the official cactus of Washington state.
    Government

    Should WA lawmakers designate an official state cactus?

    The Washington Legislature has a lot of prickly problems on its plate. But there's a new one that may be the prickliest of all: Should lawmakers designate an official state cactus? A school class proposed a native cactus for the honor and they now have a sponsor in the Legislature.
  • caption: The factory doors opened to display the last 747 to thousands of guests who had gathered for the celebration on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, at Boeing’s factory in Everett.
    Business

    Before enormous, emotional crowd, Boeing delivers final 747

    Thousands of former and current Boeing workers joined customers and other guests to bid farewell to the company's final 747 jumbo jet. The hours-long celebration for the so-called “Queen of the Skies" took place in the giant building that once housed the 747 production line.
  • caption: An officer works in a speed enforcement van along I-5 in Medford during construction in 2018. The effort to slow drivers nabbed one driver going 91 mph in the 40 mph work zone.

    Roadway carnage has lawmakers pitching everything from more photo radar to fewer right turns on red

    State lawmakers in Olympia are debating a suite of possible new responses to surging traffic fatalities. Those include authorizing photo radar in highway work zones, prohibiting right turns at many red lights, and lowering the breathalyzer limit to convict for drunk driving. Some of these ideas have corollaries in Oregon, where the legislative machinery is getting revved up too.