Everything But the Carbon Sink
A recent study (pdf) by my old friends from the forestry department at OSU finds that when you add up the gains and losses, ecosystems in Oregon stored about 8 million tons of carbon per year between 1996 and 2000. The forests west of the Cascades, in particular, were prodigious carbon sinks. (A carbon sink is basically something that removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases; it’s mostly being stored in trees and soil in this case).
In case you’re wondering, 8 million tons is a lot of carbon storage. In fact, it’s enough to offset about half of the state’s total fossil fuel emissions.
Which raises a huge question: given the huge amounts of carbon that Northwest forests can capture and store, what role should they have in climate policy?
Special Series
This Land: Measure 37's Impact on Oregon
In a Series
Summer Property Rights Update
There's something energizing about midsummer. If it's not the camping trips, or the afternoon concerts in the park, then it must be the flurry of property rights campaigns gearing up for the fall election.
Here's the latest:
In Oregon, the "Yes on 49" campaign kicked off yesterday. (Measure 49 is the state legislature's referendum that will trim back some portions of Measure 37.) I can't find a website for the "No on 49" campaign, so no link today. But if you want the low-down on Oregon's property rights politics, check out landusewatch, where Peter Bray dishes the dirt with a keen eye for detail.
Media coverage of Measure 49 is here and here.
In California last week, a group of activists began gathering signatures for a new property rights ballot measure that will appear on the 2008 ballot if it qualifies. The initiative appears to concentrate on eminent domain reform (basically, outlawing Kelo-style takings), but leaves regulatory takings alone. This is a departure from California's failed Proposition 90 of 2006.
And while we're on California, the National Institute on Money in State Politics released a report (pdf) revealing that the secretive Howard Rich was responsible for millions of dollars of funding to support Prop 90, as well as ballot measures in other western states. The Sacramento Capitol Weekly has good coverage.
By the way, I haven't vetted any of this stuff: I'm just passing it along to interested readers.
The lastest on Arizona is after the break.
