Editor's Take: May 12, 2009
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A Tale of Two Carbon Plans
BC carbon tax shift pioneer Gordon Campbell says his victory at the polls should send a message to other politicians wary of aggressive climate change policies. But is the US listening? House Democrats have reached a watered-down compromise on a key climate change bill, which could mean less money to fund clean energy and share costs equally.
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Carbon tax shift champion wins in BC
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/13/2009
Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals have won a solid majority in Canada's first recession election, with his pitch of economic competence blunting an NDP attempt to use anger over the carbon tax shift to pry him out of office. Campbell said the election results are a vindication for his climate-change policies: "They send a message to others who may have looked at this with trepidation."
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US House Democrats to relax climate bill
Washington Post
05/12/2009
House Democrats said last night that they would scale back some of the most aggressive provisions of a bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a compromise designed to win the votes of fellow Democrats whose states rely on coal or heavy industry.
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Seattle official: Tax drivers by the mile
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/12/2009
Seattle's top transportation official said Washington state should allow a pilot project to tax Puget Sound drivers by the mile. Other experts on Tuesday called for a "vehicle miles traveled" tax, tolls, congestion charges and higher gas taxes to help fill a nationwide funding gap. But a state official said Washingtonians are not ready to accept paying for roads, and routinely point out that "freeway" has "free" right in the name.
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Blue whales rediscover BC, AK waters
New Scientist
05/12/2009
Blue whales have begun reappearing in Pacific waters off the coast of Canada and British Columbia for the first time since whaling ceased in 1965. The optimistic scenario is that blue whales have multiplied since the ban and are migrating north. The pessimistic scenario is that climate change is reducing the amount of krill available to whales off California, so they are forced to forage elsewhere.
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Clean energy is a breeze on OR coast
Astoria Daily Astorian
05/12/2009
It's not gale-force yet, but wind energy development on Oregon's North Coast is picking up speed. Government grants, tax incentives and a local marketer of turbines have generated a gust of interest in small-scale wind power among local homeowners, educators and municipalities.
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Stretching the shelf life of local food
New West
05/12/2009
Despite soaring demand for locally grown food, it remains primarily available only fresh, raw and in season. But a resurgence of the local processing facilities that once dotted the American landscape can extend the shelf life of Montana's harvest and has advocates of a more locally-based food system -- and economy -- optimistic.
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Forest biomass: boon or boondoggle?
Missoulian
05/13/2009
After generations of disrespect, wood refuse is the material of the moment: it can be thermochemically converted into gasoline, mixed with coal dust for clean-burning pellet fuel or cooked into charcoal to capture carbon emissions. But some worry that stripping dead wood from forest floors will lead to ecological disaster, and a key law providing incentives for renewable biofuels doesn't include wood from federal forests.
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Obama praises REI, Microsoft's health care
Seattle Times
05/13/2009
REI and Microsoft were among a handful of businesses praised Tuesday by President Obama for programs designed to make their employees healthier and keep down health-care costs, from supporting house calls by doctors to reduce ER visits to reducing health insurance premiums for eating vegetables and exercising.
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Who lost the big asbestos case in Libby?
Crosscut
05/13/2009
Did environmental groups who work harder to save wilderness and wolves let down the people of Libby? Or was it another bungled federal prosecution by the Bush administration?
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Views: Sticker shock in acting on global warming
Christian Science Monitor
05/12/2009
A House climate-change bill is watered down as its price goes up. Is that leadership?
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