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Northwest drivers using less gas
KPLU
07/02/2009
If it seems like you're buying less gas these days, you're probably right. A new study from a Seattle-based sustainability think tank finds total gasoline consumption across the Northwest dropped sharply last year. In fact, per-capita gasoline use has dropped in 8 of the last 9 years, and it's now at its lowest level since 1965.
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Veterans to be trained for green jobs
Los Angeles Times
07/01/2009
Seventeen groups nationwide, including the Long Beach office of United States Veterans Initiative -- which will receive $500,000 -- have been awarded grants to train and find green jobs for veterans. The jobs include work associated with residential and commercial solar energy systems and wastewater treatment.
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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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Energy efficiency at home: simple, accessible, and possible
Astoria Daily Astorian
07/02/2009
Most people who live in existing housing are baffled about how to make their lifestyle more sustainable. Here's how.
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Landfill gas to power homes in northern California
Contra Costa Times
07/01/2009
The largest landfill gas-to-energy project in the Bay Area will produce 12 megawatts of power at a constant rate, drawing on a potentially bottomless source of renewable "green" power that has proved more predictable and reliable than either solar or wind energy.
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Affordable-housing project gets national green award
Oregonian
07/01/2009
A mixed-use, affordable-housing project, built on land in southwest Portland long considered environmentally unsound, has received a national award for incorporating outstanding "green" practices.
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Green triumphs muscle in car-choice survey
Vancouver Sun
07/01/2009
Is green becoming mainstream? A new global survey shows nearly six in 10 people would choose an environment-friendly car over a petrol-powered one, even if they had all the money in the world.
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An energy windfall for Oregon homeowner
Medford Mail-Tribune
07/02/2009
A single mother of four in Medford, Oreg., will get a home makeover that hardly will be evident to the naked eye, but provide some $25,000 in improvements to comfort and savings for what she calls her "energy hog of a house."
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Northwest drivers using less gasoline
Boise Idaho Statesman
07/01/2009
Idaho, Washington, and Oregon drivers cut back their per-capita gasoline consumption by 5 percent in 2008. Total gasoline consumption in the three states fell about 180 million gallons between 2007 and 2008, the largest drop since 1980, according to a new study from Sightline Institute.
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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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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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Energy searchlight back on biomass
Medford Mail-Tribune
07/01/2009
Born in response to spiking energy prices of the 1970s, a now maturing and green biomass industry finds itself positioned to play a leading role in the renewable-energy movement. A southern Oregon plant produces enough to power 5,000 home and has become a favorite recycling site for everything from Christmas trees and hedges to plywood from remodeling projects.
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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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When garbage becomes fuel
BC Local News
06/30/2009
A tiny square window glows fiery red in a South Burnaby, BC's waste-to-energy plant, and a peek through it is like a look inside a dragon's gullet. Metro Vancouver hopes to win public and provincial approval to build new waste-fired plants to treat garbage less like waste and more like a resource.
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Views: The spill, 20 years later
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
07/01/2009
It has been just more than 20 years since oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez and soiled the biology and economy of Prince William Sound, ruined lives, and forever tainted the image of what is now the world’s largest company. Now, the end of the legal chapter of this story is near.
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Boise firm starts work on 14 wind parks across S. Idaho
Boise Idaho Statesman
06/29/2009
Exergy Development Group will begin this summer to build 14 wind parks across southern Idaho that will produce 228 megawatts of electricity and put Idaho in the top 20 states for wind power.
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Obama puts spotlight on energy-efficient lamps
San Francisco Chronicle
06/30/2009
President Obama, aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, Monday plugged his administration's efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.
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Should renewable energy include nuclear?
Christian Science Monitor
06/29/2009
The US, China, and dozens of other countries are meeting today in Egypt to chart the course of a new international agency aimed at promoting renewable energy.
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US works to speed solar energy development in the West
Los Angeles Times
06/30/2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signs an order that sets aside some 676,000 acres of federal land - more than half in California - for study and environmental reviews.
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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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