Editor's Take: April 28, 2009
beve4, flickr
NW Test Drives Electric Cars
Seattle became the latest Northwest city to woo electric carmakers, announcing plans to help Nissan promote a plug-in car that will go on sale locally next year. Canada is taking on coal plants with tough new standards and emissions caps, and a report dings Puget Sound for dirty air. A new poll also finds Americans are angry about the recession upending their lives.
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Nissan will sell electric car in Seattle
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/28/2009
Seattle will be one of the first cities where Nissan sells a new electric car next year, and the city will help make the vehicles viable. The automaker also intends to work with government and other organizations and companies on a plan to promote the cars and creation of a network of charging facilities.
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Canada takes aim at coal power
Globe and Mail
04/29/2009
Canada's federal government is planning sweeping new climate-change regulations for its electricity sector that will phase out traditional coal-fired power and cap emissions. Any new coal plants will have to include highly expensive - and unproven - technology to capture greenhouse gas emissions and inject it underground for permanent storage.
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King County gets an 'F' for dirty air
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/29/2009
Sixty percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels, despite a growing green movement and more stringent laws aimed at improving air quality, the American Lung Association said in a new report. It gave poor marks to Washington's King County: An "F" for ozone levels and a "C" for particle pollution based on a violation of stricter smog standards last year.
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Obama revives endangered species reviews
Washington Post
04/28/2009
The Obama administration announced that federal agencies will once again be required to undergo an independent scientific review if they embark on projects that might affect threatened or endangered species, marking yet another reversal of a last-minute Bush administration environmental regulation.
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BC forest job losses top 20,000
Vancouver Sun
04/29/2009
Former BC pulp mill worker Rick Berry traded a house he can't sell for a dorm room and pay phone hundreds of miles away to take advantage of a trades retraining program. But he feels like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders in getting away from the soul-eating anxiety of waiting for a turnaround in the worst forestry downturn in memory.
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FEMA slow to curb salmon-killing building
Seattle Times
04/28/2009
When a federal judge ruled five years ago that building in Puget Sound flood plains helped drive orcas, chinook and chum salmon toward extinction, federal officials agreed to make development in flood-prone areas more fish friendly. But none of the local governments that oversee development in Puget Sound would be required to follow the agency's new guidelines.
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Vancouver parks choking on bottled water ban?
Georgia Straight
04/28/2009
A suggested ban on bottled water isn't going down easy at the Vancouver park board. Already saddled with an unprecedented $1.9-million cut to its operating funds this year, the board is looking at the prospect of losing $250,000 in revenues from bottled-water sales.
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Nuclear power's huge price tag
Seattle Times
04/28/2009
A ghost from the nuclear industry's early years has reappeared. It is not public apprehension about safety or disposal issues this time, but the staggering cost of building nuclear reactors.
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Recession has changed lifestyles, poll shows
Washington Post
04/28/2009
The recession has forced a majority of Americans to alter their lifestyles, and many are upset about it, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. According to the survey, 66 percent have lost a job or have seen someone close to them get laid off.
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Views: Same work, same pay for women
Juneau Empire
04/28/2009
The last Tuesday in April is Equal Pay Day, marking the extra four months it takes women to catch up to the amount earned by men the previous year. Nearly five decades after the country banned wage discrimination, women in the United States still earn only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.
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