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BC gets greener at the gas pump
CBC BC
07/01/2009
British Columbia got a little greener on Wednesday: The province celebrated the first anniversary of its carbon tax with a price bump at the gas pumps. A recent poll by Environics suggests almost half of BC residents support the tax, and it is also gaining favor across the country.
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Climate change from Europe to the Oregon Coast
Oregon Public Broadcasting
07/01/2009
A majority of climate scientists agree -- the planet is warming. The question now is how climate change will change our lives, our landscapes, our economy, and the ecological web around us. So we decided to focus on the impact of climate change on one small town -- the town of Denmark, Oregon.
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Green light for Portland's green line
Oregonian
06/30/2009
As a MAX train glided through a brick-lined section of downtown Portland, someone in the VIP crowd on the first trip of the new Green Line called out: "Where are we?" The answer: Union Station, a place where no MAX has gone before.
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Shifting carbon taxes to fund BC transit?
Vancouver Sun
07/01/2009
An unlikely group of environmentalists, business and labour leaders joined Metro Vancouver's mayors to lobby for directing an annual $450 million into funding public transit. While some mayors favor shifting carbon taxes to pay for better transit, others say that money's off the table.
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The politics of parking
San Francisco Bay Guardian
06/30/2009
The local politics of parking in San Francisco have reached "a spatial stalemate." Even as residents in the 1960s decided they did not want gashes of freeway through their waterfront and parks, the city didn't take space away from cars. And if you don't do that, you're not solving the problem.
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With goodies for everyone, climate bill passed
New York Times
06/30/2009
As the most ambitious energy and climate-change legislation ever introduced in Congress made its way to a floor vote last Friday, it grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts intended to win the votes of wavering lawmakers and the support of powerful industries.
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OR conservation lobby counts successes, setbacks
Salem Statesman Journal
06/30/2009
It didn't exactly turn the session around, but the final days of the Oregon legislative session brought some good news for groups who have been disappointed by the lack of movement on green legislation.
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Should Obama try to reset the planet's thermostat?
Mother Jones Magazine
07/01/2009
The august National Academy of Sciences this month brought together leading scientists to discuss a crazy-sounding idea: Should the US consider geoengineering the planet's atmosphere to combat global warming? Once a fringe theory, the idea that humans can change the Earth's climate through direct intervention has begun to gain credibility.
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Cracks in Seattle's green-growth coalition
Crosscut
07/01/2009
Seattle politicians like to jockey over who is more green than the other. But candidates need business support too, and the battle for endorsements reveals some ideological divides between local environmentalists, developers, and independent thinkers who wonder if all urban growth is good.
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BC mayors tap allies for transit funding
BC Local News
06/30/2009
Metro Vancouver mayors have enlisted influential new allies representing business, environment and labour to help press their case for new TransLink funding sources to enable an ambitious transit system expansion.
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Views: Many more baby bike steps in BC, please
BC Local News
06/30/2009
It’s always a precious sight to see a parent trying to show a little one how to ride a bike without training wheels. That’s about the same evolutionary stage TransLink is at with the opening of the Central Valley Greenway. It’s a baby step toward making Greater Vancouver conducive for commuting cyclists, or even recreational ones for that matter.
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The once and future streetcar town
Oregonian
06/30/2009
The US Transportation Secretary will unveil in Portland on Wednesday what's believed to be the first American-made streetcar in 58 years. The visit could bring more orders for streetcars, giving a boost to a number of local businesses.
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BC training unemployed to fight forest fires
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/30/2009
The BC government is looking to train 750 unemployed people to help fight wildfires this summer. Officials said the province could use reinforcements on the fire lines, and laid-off forest workers and others who are unemployed would be perfect for the job.
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Canada to match US climate change rules
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/30/2009
Canada will adopt climate-change regulations comparable to those of the United States - including new rules for oil sands producers and refiners - to avoid punitive "green" tariffs, Environment Minister Jim Prentice says.
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Feds OK tougher emissions rules in CA
San Francisco Chronicle
06/30/2009
Federal officials cleared California to impose tough greenhouse gas limits on new motor vehicles that more than a dozen other states can follow immediately and that will form the basis of new nationwide rules in 2012.
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EPA gives California emissions waiver
Los Angeles Times
06/30/2009
The Environmental Protection Agency will announce today that it is granting California's request to impose tough restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks - reversing the Bush administration's position and opening the way for the state to take the lead on global-warming policy.
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Views: Harper should spend on climate change
Toronto Globe and Mail
06/30/2009
US greenhouse-gas vision is missing in Canada.
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Montana Congress votes on emissions bill
Missoulian
06/30/2009
US Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., voted "no" on the climate change legislation that passed the House last week - but Montana's other two members of Congress aren't saying how they'll vote on the measure.
The bill, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases by limiting emissions from major industrial sources, such as power plants, passed the House on Friday on a 219-212 vote.
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Climate bill shaped by compromise
Los Angeles Times
06/28/2009
President Obama's willingness to sit down with each group affected by a historic climate bill and compromise yielded a narrow victory in the House on Friday. The question is: did supporters give away so much in the process that the benefits to the environment ended up being slim to none?
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Hohmmmm: The zen of saving energy
KPLU
06/28/2009
Tracking energy use is the first step toward reducing your carbon footprint and saving money on your utility bill. Now, Microsoft is coming out with free software that let's you analyze how your home uses energy. It's called Hohm: a combination of "home" and "ohm," the unit for measuring electrical resistance.
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Going whole hog on energy upgrades
Sacramento Bee
06/28/2009
Jon Pyle is trying to do right by the environment and his pocketbook by having double-pane windows installed in his home, but some energy experts say the California resident doing it all wrong. Like most people, he's doing piecemeal energy efficiency upgrades rather than embarking on wholesale change.
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Stopping chain saws inside OR's urban areas
Oregonian
06/29/2009
Oregonians love the region's trees. Unless, of course, we need to cut them down, for any reason at all -- profit, development or even just to improve our view. Now two citizens groups are pushing urban tree codes designed to protect the area's leafy canopy as the population swells.
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Connecting Seattle rail to the beaten path
Seattle Times
06/29/2009
Seattle's new light rail trains won't quite take people to Columbia City's old brick storefronts built along an electric streetcar line. The challenge is to forge a transportation and psychological bond between the stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and the bustle on Rainier. Otherwise, ridership will sag.
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Views: Replace WA property tax with BC carbon tax
Seattle Times
06/29/2009
It has been a roller-coaster year for anyone concerned about climate change. The Western Climate Initiative is stalled and federal legislation has an uncertain future. But Washington state could make strides to reduce carbon emissions by repealing the state property tax and imposing a carbon tax shift modeled on British Columbia's.
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Boise's human-powered bike move
Boise Idaho Statesman
06/28/2009
The Boise Bicycle Project is resourceful: the sign on the front door was made with bike gears and rusted sections of chain. The non profit has rehabbed and donated 460 bikes to local kids, refugees and people in need. And Saturday hundreds of volunteers stepped up for its human-powered bike move.
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