|
Environmental/Land Use
The United Steelworkers union plans to file a legal case with the Obama administration on Thursday, accusing China of violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing exports of clean energy equipment.
|
|
PACE is a financing mechanism that allows qualified property owners to borrow money to install energy improvements. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have challenged PACE programs and called into question the seniority of the loan.
|
|
In this paper, CAP looks at state regulations and incentives for energy efficiency that are working today in leading states to accelerate demand for energy efficiency services, businesses, and ultimately jobs.
|
| By: Center for American Progress |
|
Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it five years ago.
|
|
The politics pouring into the Puget Sound Partnership are as damaging as pollution, wasting money on ineffective projects while neglecting the Sound's most serious pollution.
|
|
An independent investigation called for "fundamental reform" at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, saying the organization's 2007 report played down uncertainty about some aspects of global warming.
|
|
Carbon emissions offset market is being gamed when it comes to a byproduct from making refrigerants.
|
|
Older trees store more carbon, but younger trees absorb more carbon - so, cut 'em down or not?
|
|
In recent months Beijing has drummed up support for hydropower, calling for quicker building of dams after recent years had seen plans scaled back due to tighter environmental rules and the costs or relocating the population.
|
|
The weatherization program Vice President Biden highlighted in his visit Thursday to New Hampshire is widely considered among the least organized spending projects under the $814 billion economic stimulus law.
|
|
An examination of details in the 50-page report unveiled Tuesday by Vice President Biden reveals a collection of rosy projections that ignore many of the challenges, pitfalls and economic realities.
|
|
"Because we have discovered and we have the technology to develop efficiently large quantities of gas from shale, global prices of liquefied natural gas have decreased."
|
|
The National Park Service has signed a $27 million contract with a Bozeman, Mont., company to take out the two dams on the Elwha River in the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history.
|
|
The estimated U.S. energy use in 2009 equaled 94.6 quadrillion BTUs, down from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008.
|
| By: Christain Science Monitor |
|
Policymakers continue to promise new “clear-eyed” approaches to stimulating job growth; unfortunately, what we tend to see is the same recycled “green” rhetoric.
|
| By: Washington Policy Center |
|
Releasing a new report summing up progress under the Recovery Act, Vice President Biden predicted that the cost of solar power would be cut in half by 2015, putting it “on par” with the cost of retail electricity.
|
|
Developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the Tri-Cities, the Smart Grid would improve the stability of the grid and allow consumers to receive real-time information about rates and adjust their energy use accordingly.
|
| By: Washington Policy Center |
|
More than 30 traditional coal plants have been built across the country since 2008 or are under construction.
|
|
According to preliminary EPRI findings, wind power would dominate new generation in the Great Plains and Midwest. New nuclear power would grow fastest in the South, after 2020. Geothermal energy would become an important new source in the West.
|
|
What dominates debate now is what some see as the possibility — and others see as the inevitability — of cost overruns.
|
|
A federal appeals court Tuesday decided that mud washing off logging roads is pollution and ordered the U.S. EPA to write regulations to reduce the amount that reaches salmon streams.
|
|
A Seattle Port Commissioner argues for comprehensive, strategic, national investments for moving goods and retaining competitiveness. Just look to Canada for an example, and a threat.
|
|
Tight Ag Lending Creates Strain After Years of Poor Crops
|
| By: Yakima Herald-Republic |
|
Despite the federal stalemate, at the local level there has been a string of successful compromises between environmentalists and industry in the last two weeks.
|
|
Dan Kish, senior vice president at the Institute for Energy Research said the original moratorium applied only to drilling rigs operating in 500 feet of water or deeper, but that the July 12 order by Salazar applies to all floating rigs in the Gulf.
|
|
The debate is heating up on Capitol Hill because the two main subsidies --- a tax credit for blending ethanol with gasoline and an import tax on foreign ethanol --- expire at the end of the year.
|
| By: Lexington Herald-Leader |
|
One of the economic models on which the EPA relied projects that the new limits could cost 1,500 industry jobs, raise the price of cement 5.4% and cut demand by nearly 6%.
|
|
The latest round of talks that concluded Friday showed that the 194 negotiating countries have failed to even define a common target or method for curbing greenhouse gases.
|
|
Besides Texas, six other states lead in terms of new capacity (each with more than 500 MW), Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Illinois, New York, and Washington.
|
|
These proposed changes to what’s called the “Tailoring Rule” would mean that biomass plants would no longer be considered carbon-neutral by the EPA, and it would make it more difficult for the plants to pencil out financially.
|
|
Instead of underwriting a project which would have turned coal into a hydrocarbon gas, filtered out the carbon and burned the hydrogen, the government said it would contribute $737 million for a new technology and remake an obsolete oil-burning plant in Meredosia, Ill.
|
|
New research reveals carbon emissions from rich nations could actually rise under loopholes in the proposed UN climate deal.
|
|
Because of pressure from environmental groups, many federal and state forests are off limits to harvest and even to “housekeeping” activities, such as thinning, clearing undergrowth and removing dead and diseased trees.
|
|
The study, which has been embraced by agricultural groups but criticized by some environmentalists, found that improvements in technology, plant varieties and other advances enabled farmers to grow more without a big increase in greenhouse gas releases.
|
|
Many Democrats, especially from states with a lot of coal or wilting manufacturers, have long been unenthusiastic. Voters, by most pollsters’ accounts, are becoming less energised about global warming.
|
|
International scientists, in a new NOAA study, say that climate change is “undeniable” and shows clear signs of “human fingerprints” in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy.
|
|
A subgroup — California, New Mexico, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia — intends to move first in limiting carbon dioxide emissions.
|
|
Ratepayers are going to end up paying $82 million annually more than what they currently pay for the power to be supplied by Cape Wind. That is far cry from paying the $25 million less that Cape Wind originally promised.
|
|
In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants, according to a paper published this month.
|
|
Fossil fuel spending in the Northwest states fell sharply in 2009, compared with 2008, when the region's spending topped $28 billion. Nevertheless, coal, oil, and gas created a tremendous financial burden for the region: $18.9 billion in 2009.
|
|
The image of forest products companies in Washington State has improved dramatically over the past 20 years.
|
|
The death of federal legislation revives attention on regional cap-and-trade programs and other state initiatives in the United States, which have been on hold as state leaders anticipated action by Congress.
|
|
"While a comprehensive and well thought out energy and climate bill would be better than the partial and incremental approach EPA has initiated, I do not underestimate the importance of the steps being taken."
|
| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
|
The proposed rules for mecury, which the agency was required by U.S. courts to issue by November 2011, is likely to help push many of the oldest and dirtiest emitters of carbon into retirement.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | July 21, 2010
Last year Gov. Gregoire raised eyebrows when she took a failed air-pollution bill and enacted a more limited version herself, in the form of an executive order. A new lawsuit from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation says she didn't have the ...
|
|
The latest Gallup poll shows 62 percent of Americans – an all-time high – favor the use of nuclear energy.
|
|
One challenge in the western U.S. is that the power transmission grid has just about reached its capacity to accommodate new generation.
|
|
Phase 1 is smaller, billions over budget and more than a dozen years late compared to what officials originally promised voters.
|
| By: Washington Policy Center Blog |
|
At $750/MTC02e, corn ethanol has to be the most expensive carbon mitigation strategy ever considered.
|
|
The average temperature of the planet for the next several thousand years will be determined this century—by those of us living today, according to a new National Research Council report.
|
|
Globally, about 80 gigawatts of renewable power capacity was added last year, almost half of it in China, UNEP said. That compares with the 83 gigawatts of fossil fuel plants added.
|
|
Today, the practice of using woody biomass from sustainably managed forests to produce electricity and biofuels is supported by 57% of likely voters statewide, opposed by 18% and 26% have no opinion.
|
|
I had hoped that the various Climategate inquiries would be severe. But no, the reports make things worse. At best they are mealy-mouthed apologies; at worst they are patently incompetent and even wilfully wrong.
|
|
Five separate reviews have found no evidence whatsoever to back up the outrageous claims made by skeptics and deniers regarding the public airing of emails from the University of East Anglia last winter.
|
| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
|
The Seattle project is intended to comply with orders from the U.S. EPA and the state DOE to cut the city's combined sewage and stormwater system overflows into Lake Washington and Puget Sound to no more than once a year.
|
|
At issue is a procedure known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has been adopted widely in the United States over the past 10 years to extract gas trapped in shale formations.
|
|
Biologists say the numbers of salmon and steelhead heading up the Columbia River are well above average, including a record run of sockeye.
|
|
The original U.S. cap-and-trade market, which succeeded in slashing the power-plant emissions that cause acid rain, is in disarray following the issuance of new federal pollution rules.
|
|
Seattle Public Utilities will soon begin a federally-mandated, $500 million city-wide infrastructure improvement program designed to reduce storm and wastewater pollution. This will mean higher sewer and drainage bills for people, beginning next year, and for years afterwards.
|
| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
|
State law requires the three large investor-owned utilities to procure 20% of their retail electricity sales from clean sources by the end of 2010. But even government watchdogs don't expect the power companies to make it.
|
|
If other states — or even Congress, which is writing energy legislation — follow Massachusetts, it could have wide implications for biomass developers, as well as for states trying to meet renewable energy targets.
|
|
The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled proposed air pollution regulations Tuesday aimed at curbing harmful power plant pollution in 31 states, mostly east of the Mississippi River.
|
|
It comes as no surprise that the Golden State gets the gold, followed by silver for Washington, in Site Selection’s inaugural Sustainability Rankings.
|
| By: Site Selection Magazine |
|
The press and Internet are full of straightforward suggestions for easy ways of improving the cleanup, but the federal government is resisting these remedies.
|
|
The debate is heating up over whether the Obama administration should approve a huge new pipeline called Keystone XL that would bring oil extracted from the earth in Alberta, Canada, all the way to Texas for refining.
|
|
New carbon-trading laws intended to reduce climate-changing pollution emissions took effect Thursday in New Zealand, immediately sending gas prices higher.
|
|
A March Gallup Poll shows that 62 percent of Americans embrace nuclear power while only 33 percent oppose it. That is a dramatic change from 2001 when people were equally divided.
|
|
The fight over natural resources is taking center stage at a meeting of governors from the West, led off by straight talk about the water that has been the source of bitter battles predating many of the states themselves.
|
|
The vans are a jet-flash of white paint as they streak down the turnpike, gunning it to 90 mph.
|
|
Unless realistic expectations based on objective research replace the ideological goal of trying to divert travel away from cars to transit, the nation could find itself spending hundreds of billions more dollars without accomplishing anything.
|
|
While the United States requires operators to be prepared to drill relief wells, their contingency plans do not have to specify a firm timeline for how quickly they will do so, experts said.
|
|
Bird mortality "at wind farms, compared to other human-related causes of bird mortality, is biologically and statistically insignificant," wrote Mike Sagrillo, a consultant who writes for American Wind Energy Association.
|
|
King County Metro drivers enjoy the third-highest wages in the nation, behind only Boston and San Jose. The top wage for a driver at Metro is $28.47 an hour—higher than drivers’ wages in much more expensive cities like San Francisco ($27.92) and New York ($28).
|
|
Salmon advocates think that anyone who takes an unbiased look at the costs and benefits of those dams will call in the bulldozers.
|
|
Those who don’t like the idea of generating power by burning wood may want to think about tweaking Initiative 937. A policy that prefers wood incineration to falling hydro water seems environmentally odd, to put it lightly.
|
|
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation declined 3 to 10 percent in the last two years, the largest decline in the past 40 years, according to the report. However, emissions rose by 45 percent from 1990 to 2007.
|
|
A senior Chinese climate official said on Tuesday that negotiators aim to seal a binding global pact on warming by the end of 2011, a blow to any lingering hopes the world could reach a deal at talks this year in Mexico.
|
|
The Seattle Audubon society has objected to the site during the permitting process because it is on public land near nesting areas for an endangered species of fast-moving seabirds, the marbled murrelet.
|
|
Herein lies the Achilles heel of environmentalism--its profound disconnect from public preferences and aspirations. By embracing such a radical social engineering agenda, the greens may end up undermining their own long-term effectiveness.
|
|
The new dean, Lisa Graumlich, said she believes the debate has moved beyond whether climate change is happening to what the impacts will mean.
|
|
Mr. Obama announced the creation of a new national policy that will result in less greenhouse-gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time, and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks.
|
|
Capping and pricing carbon emissions is key to well-crafted policy to rein in greenhouse gases. But there are five key policy areas to build a low-carbon economy that will drive investment in clean technology.
|
| By: Center for American Progress |
|
This is still cap and tax—except with new and larger subsidies, outright corporate bribes, and the rest of the political palm-greasing that Democrats hope can still lead to a Rose Garden ceremony this year.
|
|
The PUDs are worried that after they spend millions of dollars on studies the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will nix the project to protect marbled murrelets, threatened birds that nest near the ridge and fly over it.
|
|
Top honors went to Washington State, followed by Vermont, New York, Oregon and California.
|
|
On the 100th anniversary of Montana's Glacier National Park, it appears the glaciers are all melting away.
|
|
This is the largest drop since the start of EIA’s record of annual energy data more than 60 years ago. EIA attributes the huge drop partly to the economic downturn.
|
|
The CBO concludes that total employment during the next few decades would be slightly lower than would be the case in the absence of policies to reduce greenhouse gases.
|
| By: Congressional Budget Office |
|
Despite the anti-clean-energy assumptions baked into the models CBO studied, they still basically show that the US economy will hardly lose any jobs at all on net.
|
|
States, EPA asserts, should prioritize projects that upgrade the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in cities over projects intended to serve new developments on the suburban fringe.
|
|
NREL analysts report that the rate premium that customers pay for green power continues to drop. The average net price premium for utility green power products has decreased from 3.48 cents/kWh in 2000 to 1.75 cents/kWh in 2009.
|
|
When it comes to environmental regulation, California doesn’t wait for the Feds to ride in and lay down the law.
|
|
On Tuesday, the federal agency released an 80-page glossy report to help Americans make sense of climate change data.
|
|
The 2010 Legislature struck out on three opportunities to help the state budget and protect the environment.
|
|
Governor Gregoire writes, "Despite our leadership and innovation, some industry lobbyists in the other Washington want to limit states' ability to act independently to protect our economy and natural resources. That's a bad idea, and it sets a dangerous precedent."
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | March 12, 2010
A controversial hike in oil taxes will be a front-and-center battle when the Legislature comes back from its three-day weekend, top Dems say.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | March 4, 2010
Include her out, says Judy Clibborn of a green plan to raise oil taxes. The measure is one of the top priorities for the environmental lobby, but support appears to be faltering.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | March 4, 2010
Gutsy lawmakers drink every day from BPA bottles as they crack down on baby bottles and sippy cups. How come none of them are scared?
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | March 3, 2010
Talk about Nixon going to China! Former Supreme Court justice and Democratic lion says the constitution blocks a green tax scheme.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Feb. 28, 2010
Transportation chair warns Senate about plummeting gas-tax revenues -- and shows why the asphalt lobby hates a green plan to raise taxes on oil.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Feb. 23, 2010
Tim Hamilton's service station operators say they'll challenge a proposed oil-tax hike in court -- a major roadblock for one budget-balancing scheme.
|
|
Environmentalists sweeten proposal by offering exactly enough to balance the state budget -- plan would raise gas prices, cut money for roads.
|
|
Attorney general's property-rights bills are dying for lack of a hearing. Is it local-government opposition? Or his possible campaign for governor?
|
|
Environmentalists' political war on BPA plastics now turns to state Senate -- will lawmakers expand ban to sports-water bottles?
|
|
Rate payers could be big losers if no compromise is reached -- one utility predicts 20 percent electric-bill increase without changes to I-937.
|
|
Two key lawmakers file bills to force utilities and greens to compromise on Initiative 937 – but there's no deal yet. Will last year's war resume?
|
|
A Senate panel passes a bill banning BPA plastics in baby products -- a nod to environmental activists who won't wait for scientific consensus.
|
|
Attorney General Rob McKenna takes the side of property-rights advocates with bills that would block government land-grabs for private development.
|
|
Washington activists want the state to join a national movement to ban BPA plastics, but the politics are way ahead of the science.
|
|
And that's not all lawmakers will be arguing about -- new bills would legalize marijuana, privatize liquor stores, and crack down on plasma TVs.
|
|
As an agency director, Ted Sturdevant is an unknown quantity -- and observers of one of the state's most controversial agencies are hopeful.
|
|
When Washington lawmakers passed a bill six years ago to curtail mercury emissions to the environment, they hailed it as a major step toward protecting the state’s environment --- but a state agency is ignoring it.
|
| By: Erik Smith/ Washington State Wire |
|
|
By: The Olympian | Sept. 9, 2010
I-1098's supporters air their first ad -- and somehow it fails to mention an income tax is involved. Meanwhile, opponents hit back with an ad that mentions the deadly phrase five times.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 8, 2010
In a decision that could change campaign strategies for this year's initiatives, a federal judge has ruled that the state's limits on last-minute contributions are unconstitutional. It's another victory for James Bopp, Jr., the conservative attorney who has been picking away at campaign-finance restrictions nationwide. And in the state's biggest-spending year for initiatives ever, that means the enormous contributions can keep right on coming until election day.
|
|
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 3, 2010
A lawsuit to overturn the results of the Senate race in the 38th Legislative District became a probability Friday. Phil Talmadge is on the case. He gave notice to Attorney General Rob McKenna and the Snohomish County prosecutor that if they don't sue, he will. All because of a phony Republican mailer from the left that did exactly what it was supposed to -- destroy incumbent Sen. Jean Berkey in the primary.
|
|
By: Bob Keefe | Washington, D.C.
In this "Letter from Washington," Bob Keefe says America's military involvement in the Near East remains at the forefront of everyone's mind in the nation's capital. Meanwhile, Joe Miller's election as senator from Alaska portends trouble in Republican ranks.
|
|
| By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Sept. 3, 2010 |
It’s a shame Washington citizens, and particularly voters, don’t take the time to look behind the curtain at think-tank reports. Do they actually know it is a word game, or cooked-up findings?
Yes, it comes from both sides. The conservative think tanks take a data set, twist the numbers, and shape the findings. The liberals do the same thing.
So today’s announcement by the Washingto...
|
|
| By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Sept. 2, 2010 |
It’s back to school time, and as a parent of children in our public school system, I’m shocked and dismayed by the “Not the WASL” test scores just released by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. And the most disturbing thing is not the performance of our kids, but the behavior and beliefs of the ‘adults’ running the show.
So, pop quiz. Don’t worry, it’s open book, and you can find a...
|
|
| By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010 |
1. The head of the Port of Seattle gave us all a moment of relief when he announced he would not accept a raise this year. He went home, sat down at the table and realized he could get by with his meager $334,000 a year. That of course is just the salary, the monthly nut. I feel better knowing he won't have to miss, what? A trip to Asia? No, the port sends him there for free. Maybe a new Lexus or ...
|
|
| By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010 |
We are all cognitive misers – that means our brains are lazy. We like things to follow a pattern, and we don’t like to spend time reviewing the data looking for the exception. So when we develop a ‘truth’, we tend to stick with it even when the data doesn’t support our lazy view of the world.
In reading the comments on the latest Seattle Times “Truth Needle” article, plenty of people mad...
|
|
General Election Comes Nov. 2
|
|
Employment Security Department Vows Action
|
| By: The (Vancouver) Columbian |
|
Developer Has Until End of Month to Buy City Land
|
|
Launches Battle With GOP, Some Dems
|
|
Canadian Seed Dealer Mark Emery Calls Prosecution Political
|
| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
|
Congressman is Hypocrite, Says Opponent DelBene
|
| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
|
Seattle's Deficit Grows by $11 Million -- Now $67 Million
|
| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
|
Democrat Heck Faces Surprising Uphill Battle in Congressional Race
|
|
The health-care overhaul enacted last spring won't significantly change national health spending over the next decade compared with projections before the law was passed, according to government figures set to be released Thursday.
|
|
The voluntary reporting of risk-adjusted coronary-artery bypass grafting procedure outcomes in approximately 20% of U.S. cardiac surgery programs is a watershed event in health care accountability.
|
| By: New England Journal of Medicine |
|
Whereas the industry strongly opposes the NAIC’s draft recommendations, in a July 6 statement consumer representatives urged that the recommendations be “accepted as drafted” because they represent “a carefully crafted compromise.”
|
| By: New England Journal of Medicine |
|
When generics first come on the market, the rebates on brand-name drugs may still make them less expensive.
|
|
Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement.
|
|
In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.
|
|
The waiver is only valid for one year, and plans must reapply annually "in accordance with future guidance from HHS."
|
|
About half a dozen states have banned BPA in children’s products, and U.S. Senator Feinstein hopes to accomplish the same nationwide, with an amendment to the food safety bill scheduled for a vote in the Senate next week.
|
|
One in five Americans lights up regularly. If all states had prevention programs like those in California and Utah, 5 million fewer people would be smoking, the agency says.
|
|
Double-digit rate increases are hitting most individual health-insurance plans in Washington state, hurting jobless workers and worrying insurance regulators.
|
|
Nonetheless, the Washington Federation of State Employees, which is bargaining on behalf of about 40,000 workers, has rejected the governor’s offer.
|
|
There is good reason to be scared into action. Every year, 76 million cases of foodborne illness occur, leading to about 300,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.
|
|
|
RSS Links
Subscribe to this feed
.jpg)
