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New federal agency will monitor climate change
San Francisco Chronicle
02/09/2010
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced that NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in tandem with NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean Service.
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Portland leaders OK urban expansion, farm protections
Oregonian
02/09/2010
Metro and the three Portland-area counties rolled the dice on a collaborative future Monday, approving a long-range planning map that designates which areas will be developed and which will be reserved for farms and forests for the next 40 to 50 years.
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Consumers really can affect global warming
Seattle Post-Globe
02/09/2010
I've always been just a hair skeptical about all those admonitions to consumers to save the world - you know, the "Live simply, that others may simply live"-type instructions. They felt a little too much like guilt-tripping to me, with perhaps not enough corresponding actual environmental good being done. Well, I stand corrected.
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Small OR schools, low-income housing benefit from stimulus
Canadian Business
02/09/2010
The worst recession in 70 years is turning into an energy-saving boon for tiny and remote rural schools in Oregon as well as the state's poorest people.
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Recycling push puts Berkeley's budget in dumps
San Francisco Chronicle
02/09/2010
Berkeley's $144 million budget is in the trash can - literally.
In a $10 million deficit announced last week, the single biggest factor - $4 million - was a decline in its refuse revenues.
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Despite tax credits, wind-energy firms aren't hiring
Seattle Times
02/09/2010
Despite the Obama administration's efforts to create jobs making wind turbines in America, some companies say that sluggish demand for wind energy is holding them back.
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Biodiesel tax credit ends
Salem Statesman Journal
02/09/2010
Salem-based SeQuential Biodiesel, like most businesses in the industry, is reeling from the loss of a federal biodiesel tax credit.
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Views: Lake Tapps, for cities, fish and recreation
Seattle Times
02/09/2010
The Cascade Water Alliance signed an agreement with Auburn, Bonney Lake, Buckley and Sumner to provide access to drinking water at Lake Tapps as those cities receive state water permits. The deal looks out 50 years.
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Making solar power portable
New York Times
02/09/2010
Last year, when Jonathan Smith was still the president of Earth911.com, a Web site dedicated to recycling, he said he would often board a plane after a speaking engagement or a day of meetings with a dead cellphone in hand.
Hoping to solve his problem, Mr. Smith bought a portable solar charger he could prop up in the window of a plane.
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Couple sells their first carbon credit
Financial Times
02/09/2010
While a bill to establish a cap-and-trade system has stalled in the US Senate, individuals keen to tackle carbon emissions should consider the example of Tami and Randy Wilson.
The Pennsylvania couple have sold the world's first carbon credit awarded for a reduction in personal carbon emissions.
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Toyota recalls 437,000 Priuses, hybrids globally
Seattle Times
02/09/2010
Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems - the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world's largest automaker.
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Controversial bailout for 'green' wind farm in BC
Vancouver Sun
02/09/2010
BC Hydro signed an energy purchase agreement with the private developer of the proposed wind farm at Dokie Ridge as part of a call for "green energy" projects back in 2006.
But work on the 144-megawatt first phase was halted during the global financial meltdown in the fall of 2008, amid rising construction costs and a consultant's report that questioned the reliability of the site as a source of wind power.
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West Coast waves getting bigger
Vancouver Sun
02/09/2010
West Coast waves are getting bigger, meaning greater threats of flooding or coastal erosion during storms, according to a new study.
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Oregon House votes to ban off-shore drilling
Oregonian
02/08/2010
Oregon's coastal waters -- at least the 3-mile-wide strip that the state controls -- would remain off-limits to oil and gas drilling for the next decade under a bill that passed the House on Monday.
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Views: Balance OR budget with energy taxes, cuts
Oregonian
02/09/2010
Lawmakers should close the $183 million gap without dipping into reserves and fix their attention on kicker reform and positioning Oregon for the future.
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US proposes new climate service
Washington Post
02/09/2010
The Obama administration proposed a new climate service on Monday that would provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels.
The move is essentially a reorganization of NOAA, and would bring the agency's climate research arm together with its more consumer-oriented services. It would not come with a boost in funding.
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UN climate panel and chief face credibility siege
New York Times
02/09/2010
Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist's version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations' climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.
But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, called for Dr. Pachauri's resignation last week.
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Federal Climate Service is created to aid new businesses
New York Times
02/09/2010
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will create a new climate change office to gather and provide data to governments, industry and academia as part of a broad federal effort to prepare for long-term changes to the planet, officials said Monday.
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Hanford advisory board says too many sickened from Beryllium
KUOW
02/08/2010
Beryllium is making too many people sick at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. That's according to a group of stakeholders that advises the Department of Energy (DOE) on how to manage the site. Last Friday, the group asked the federal government for an independent review to find out what's going on with the toxic metal at Hanford.
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Metro urban growth battles growing as vote nears
Oregon Public Broadcasting
02/08/2010
The Portland region'us contentious two-year effort to identify where urban growth should go in future decades is heating up as it nears the finish line. Rob Manning reports.
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Don't celebrate yet on Columbia River's salmon runs
Oregonian
02/07/2010
Record numbers of coho have returned to the Columbia River in recent years, and this year forecasters predict the same for spring chinook. But it's not time to pop the champagne corks and declare victory in the nation's most expensive wildlife restoration venture.
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Blind to bats' plight?
Yakima Herald-Republic
02/05/2010
At Boulder Cave, curiosity has all but killed the bat. In the cave chambers once used for winter hibernation by more than 2,000 bats, there are now mere dozens.
And with a deadly fungus wiping out entire bat populations in the eastern United States, the idea of the Pacific Northwest's bats dying off and leaving a gaping void in the ecosystem has become a very real possibility.
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Ranger Wolf: predators pushed as park stewards
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
02/07/2010
With ballooning elk and deer populations eating up greenery and altering ecosystems at national parks across the country, a group of researchers is suggesting an unusual solution: introduce small packs of gray wolves to curb the expanding herds.
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BC native band finalizes treaty agreement
Toronto Globe and Mail
02/08/2010
The Yale First Nation north of Hope, BC, has finalized a treaty agreement with the federal and provincial governments - 16 years after starting the process.
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Oregon's Steens Mountain could soon have wind farms
Oregonian
02/07/2010
Harney County has cleared Columbia Energy Partners of Vancouver to build a wind farm on the mountain's north slope. By year's end, 415-foot turbines could start rising from the juniper and sagebrush, among thousands of towers that developers are stampeding to build across eastern Oregon.
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