Editor's Take: June 18, 2008
Credit: Shyjill, Flickr
Real Steps to Stabilize Energy Prices
As fuel prices rise, consumers and policymakers are evaluating a range of solutions from alternative energy sources, new light rail projects and conservation efforts, to band-aid fixes like opening up offshore drilling. Northwest leaders in Oregon and BC, in particular, see economic opportunity in climate policy that stabilizes energy sources and helps us take charge of our energy future.
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Your editor today is Anna Fahey | View All Today's News
BC Carbon Tax Won't Raise Gas Prices
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/18/2008
The green tax shift plan would shift the 10-cent federal excise tax on a litre of fuel at the pumps into a broad-based carbon tax that would also apply to other fuels, such as those used for home heating. Stephane Dion called his plan "as simple as it is powerful," saying that it would make polluters pay and "put every single penny back into the hands of Canadians."
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Oregon Governor Calls for Energy-Secure Future
Oregonian
06/18/2008
Oregon is ready for climate policy that helps take control of the energy economy. Biodiesel, wind power, solar cells -- those hold out hope for an "energy-secure" future as well as thousands of jobs for Oregonians, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Tuesday.
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President Will Ask Congress to Allow Offshore Drilling
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/18/2008
President Bush plans to make a renewed push Wednesday to get Congress to end a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, echoing a call by GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Opponents say the "quick fix" is far from quick -- or a real fix for American families.
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A Big New Day For "I Do" in California
Seattle Times
06/18/2008
With a sense of history and a looming battle at the ballot box, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples in California wed Tuesday, a steady and decidedly confident celebration that was a marked departure from the mad rush here four years ago.
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Plan to Balance NW Salmon and Dams is Challenged
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/18/2008
The Bush administration's latest plan for balancing the lives of endangered salmon against operation of hydroelectric dams in the Columbia Basin has been challenged by conservation and fishing groups.
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Planting Sustainable Jobs for the Future -- In Astoria
Astoria Daily Astorian
06/17/2008
Oregon's pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 will spur a paradigm shift in many industries. Astoria is gearing up for new family-wage, local job opportunities that are opening up in energy conservation - including, designing, constructing and retrofitting green buildings.
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Plain Old Tap Water, Now All the Rage
Tacoma News Tribune
06/18/2008
The lousy economy may be accomplishing what environmentalists have been trying to do for years: wean people off the disposable (and expensive) plastic bottles of water that were sold as stylish, portable, healthier and safer than water from the tap.
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Biofuels Unfairly Criticized?
Oregonian
06/18/2008
Biofuels production isn't driving up global food prices as much as the mainstream media would have the public believe, according to a report released Tuesday by the Oregon Environmental Council. There are other factors, including rising fuel and labor costs, the declining value of the U.S. dollar, serious droughts, food commodity speculation and food demand in developing nations.
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Views: Why We're Gloomier Than The Economy
Washington Post
06/18/2008
Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. But consumer anxiety outstrips the data. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim.
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Views: Can Consumers Fix Fuel Prices?
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/18/2008
Who really fixes the price of oil? We, the people, fix it in a thoroughly democratic manner through our private, personal decisions. Whether to buy gasoline on any given day, for example, and how much; whether to buy a high-mileage car or a low-mileage car and where to drive it. Oil producers control the price, but people alone determine demand.
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