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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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Draining every drop
Seattle Times
06/30/2009
Groups are starting to meet again on water supply in WA's arid Yakima River Basin, the heavily irrigated region that's home to thousands of acres of tree fruit, wine grapes, hops and other crops. In drought years, fish suffer in low rivers and farmers and towns with newer water rights have their water supply rationed.
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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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Tribes keep eye on health care reform
Missoulian
06/30/2009
As much as reform could affect any individual American, it has the potential to affect tribal members more. That's because of the unique relationship Indian nations have with the federal government, which must offer free health care on reservations. No one knows how national health reform may affect that agreement.
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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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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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OR governor blasts Dems for job program failure
Oregonian
06/30/2009
OR Gov. Ted Kulongoski praised Legislative accomplishments but had harsh words for fellow Democrats who let his favorite job-creation bill languish. He wanted to spend $60 million from the state's unemployment insurance trust fund to pay thousands of unemployed Oregonians to work temp jobs in food pantries, parks and other community-based programs.
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Coastal restoration projects for habitat and jobs
Oregon Public Broadcasting
06/30/2009
In the Pacific Northwest, the federal agency that oversees ocean life will spend stimulus funding to reconnect tidal wetlands, remove obsolete dams and clean up marine debris by hiring dozens of out of work crab fishermen.
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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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Cantwell hints she might back public health plan
Seattle Times
07/01/2009
Sen. Maria Cantwell on Tuesday made her strongest statement to date supporting President Obama's idea to create a national public-health plan, but said she hasn't decided exactly which option she'll vote for. Cantwell was the most prominent member of Washington's congressional delegation who until now had not voiced wholehearted support for the public-plan option.
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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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BC Homeless shelters get more cash
Vancouver Sun
06/30/2009
The provincial government has agreed to provide another $8 million to fund four Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters that will operate in Vancouver until April 2010.
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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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Kitsap Peninsula Clinics get stimulus funds
Kitsap Sun
06/30/2009
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Monday that Peninsula, which has clinics in Bremerton, Port Orchard and Poulsbo, will receive an $861,275 grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Capital Improvement Program, according to a press release from Murray’s office.
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WA, feds to discuss Yakima water
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/30/2009
State and federal officials plan to meet with other stakeholders in the Yakima River basin to talk about how to improve water supplies there.
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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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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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EPA proposes tougher clean air rule
Washington Post
06/30/2009
The Obama administration on Monday proposed to strengthen a key air pollution health standard to better protect children and people with respiratory illnesses.
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Oregon lawmakers pass ban on field burning
Eugene Register Guard
06/30/2009
The Oregon Legislature Monday passed a ban on open field burning on the Willamette Valley floor. Except for some exempted areas east of Salem, the allowable acreage that can be open-burned will be halved to 20,000 this year and prohibited altogether in 2010.
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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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