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Environmental/Land Use
It isn’t an abundant, reliable power source; doesn’t appreciably reduce fossil dependence or CO2 emissions; isn’t free, or even cheap; doesn’t produce net job gains; nor does it cool brows of feverish environmental critics.
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A growing number of economists say that the environmental benefits of energy efficiency have been oversold. Paradoxically, there could even be more emissions as a result of some improvements in energy efficiency, these economists say.
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Washington won’t meet its first state-mandated target for reducing greenhouse gases, warns a new report to the Legislature by the Department of Ecology.
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Howard Frumkin argues a state legislative proposal to phase out coal production is a no-brainer, considering the risks of coal production and use.
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Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States declined in 2009 for the second consecutive year, gropping to lowest level since 1995.
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Energy policy leaders at some of the big eco-groups say they’re still convinced that gas can yield benefits for the climate, as long as concerns such as fracking and methane leakage can be addressed.
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Since 2004, for every additional ton of grain needed to feed a growing world population, rising government requirements for ethanol from grain have demanded a matching ton.
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| By: Washington Post Op-Ed |
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Tacoma Power customers know this if they’ve followed coverage of the proposed 5.8% increase in electricity rates this year, to be followed by another 5.8% increase next year.
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| By: Tacoma News Tribune Op-Ed |
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Already the U.S. has diverted 40% of the corn crop from food and feed to fuel. The growing demand for corn ethanol combined with rising demand for corn has shrunk stocks to the lowest level in decades. Low stocks and high demand push prices up.
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| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
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Three California unions criticize CURE for challenging construction projects on environmental grounds, then dropping objections after CURE's affiliate wins contracts to supply workers.
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Simply put, the green jobs agenda spends billions of taxpayer dollars to destroy existing jobs and replace them with jobs in politically-favored businesses, raising the costs of energy along the way.
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| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
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Under a bill introduced Wednesday, Washington State would stop burning dirty coal for electricity within its borders.
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In the fifth part of their series, the WPC highlights a "priority" program whose budget has now been zeroed out. If the program is not worth the funding today, it calls into question whether it was ever a real priority or simply a luxury.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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Even if electric cars save fuel, they still cost more to own than similar gasoline-only vehicles.
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By raiding the fund this year, the house’s supplemental budge plan would likely give oil companies more ammunition to fuel their argument against this year’s top priority for environmental advocates who want to establish a hazardous substance fee dedicated to stormwater cleanup.
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The Washington Policy Center’s 2011 Fresh Start for the Environment agenda includes five proposals that are effective and efficient.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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A Harvard economics professor notes, "it was always a mistake to think that clean energy was going to be a jobs bonanza, and we should be investing in green technology whether or not it produces jobs."
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Over a decade, flipper-banded penguins produced 39% fewer chicks and had a 16& lower survival rate, compared with penguins that did not have bands but had microchips inserted under the skin, according to the study.
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It may take some time, but good science often catches up with the political claims. Here are three examples from just the last few weeks.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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New government figures for the global climate show that 2010 was the wettest year in the historical record, and it tied 2005 as the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880.
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The new requirement is not retroactive and some LEED certified buildings are turning out to be energy hogs.
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State Rep. Jeff Morris writes, "a new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency — the Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule — is expected to hurt between 11,000 and 26,000 green jobs and more than 130 renewable-energy projects."
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Decades ago, what did prominent scientists think the environment would be like in 2010? FoxNews.com has compiled eight of the most egregiously mistaken predictions, and asked the predictors to reflect on what really happened.
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Essentially, the new rule could define wood as a nonrenewable resource, making it subject to greater regulation and thus less cost-effective as an energy source.
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State Rep. John McCoy, chairman of the House Technology, Energy and Communications Committee, said he would "probably" introduce a bill early in the 2011 session, to address some financial concerns utilities have about Initiative 937.
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The media owe us better coverage on the climate than alarmism. How about a headline proclaiming "NASA Studies Report Oceans Entering New Cooling Phase: Alarmists Fear Climate Science Budgets in Peril"?
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Is it true that Oregon and Washington are clean energy leaders, or is it just a story we tell ourselves? To answer the question, I canvassed the interwebs for credible rankings of states. The answer, as far as I can tell, turns out to be "a little of both."
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Would you spend $880,000 to save $147,000? Washington state did.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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Adding spillway weirs or fish slides to dams on the Columbia and Snake river dams have helped young fish survive their outmigration to the ocean.
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| By: National Public Radio |
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Despite more than $30 billion in subsidies for "clean energy" in the 2009 stimulus bill, Big Wind still can't make it in the marketplace.
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Last year, a bill to raise the tax on hazardous substances by 0.85% to generate $100 million for stormwater-control projects failed. This year’s bill could call for a tax or fee increase.
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Last-minute negotiations over the tax package could send America’s energy policy in exactly the wrong direction.
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| By: New York Times Editorial |
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There are four items: don't slash existing state environmental programs; stop selling phosphorous-based lawn fertilizers, which pollute Puget Sound and other bodies of water; phase out coal burning at the TransAlta plant in Centralia by 2015.
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In 2007, Congress passed an energy bill that placed stringent efficiency requirements on incandescent bulbs. As usual, politicians failed to see the unintended consequences of their legislative agenda.
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Electric cars use electricity – lots of it. In fact, the Edison Electric Institute estimates that driving 10,000 miles in an electric car will use about 2,500 kilowatt-hours, 20% more than the average home uses in a year.
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| By: Covington Reporter Op-Ed |
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Climate change is expected to cause sea levels to rise -- at least in some parts of the world. Elsewhere, the level of the ocean will actually fall.
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The Climate Change Accountability Act would require companies that profit from state spending to prove they delivered on energy-reduction promises. If they fall short, they would be required to refund taxpayer money or provide environmental services.
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| By: Bellingham Herald Op-Ed |
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The head of the EPA writes, "Fortunately, the last 40 years show no evidence that environmental protection hinders economic growth."
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| By: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed |
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Two of these are repeats from last year’s official agenda: 1) cleaning up stormwater runoff and 2) protecting green programs. Transitioning TransAlta’s Centralia plant off coal is not only a new official agenda item it’s also a direct affront to Governor Chris Gregoire.
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Nations should focus on lowering the cost of clean energy, not raising the cost of fossil energy. Stop subsidizing old technology that will never compete with fossil fuels and create incentives for innovation.
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In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight.
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| By: The Center for Public Integrity |
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By: The Wall Street Journal | Nov. 29, 2010
Forcing countries to adopt climate caps will never work, but enouraging new technology just might.
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Copenhagen was not a political breakdown. It was an intellectual breakdown so astonishing that future generations will marvel at our blind credulity. Copenhagen was a classic case of the emperor with no clothes.
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When the subsidies come down, because governments can no longer afford them or realize battery-powered cars will do next to nothing to reduce carbon footprints, watch this market be revealed for what it is—a niche.
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The European Parliament has decided to exclude solar photovoltaic panels from updated legislation outlawing harmful materials, removing a major threat to the industry's rapid expansion.
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The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.
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What better way to expand government than with policies that keep that hamper the ability of the poor to improve their conditions, and do it in the name of an elusive goal such as environmental justice?
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| By: Investors Business Daily |
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An inspector general's report shows science played little role in the moratorium. It was pure politics.
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Adds about $5.62 per month for a typical residential customer, for a total bill of $78.83. Utility must conduct annual expense audits to make sure that ratepayers aren’t illegally saddled with costs again.
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"The Skeptical Environmentalist" notes that at a time when fears of a supposedly imminent apocalypse threaten to swamp rational debate about climate policy, it's worth noting that coping with climate change is something we know how to do.
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| By: Washington Post Op-Ed |
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Mason County officials will require a full-blown environmental impact statement for the Adage wood-burning power plant, saying it is likely to have a significant adverse effect on the environment.
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Reports from around the country have trickled in recently about reusable bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafe levels of lead.
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Small and vocal pockets of opposition to the devices are forming all over the United States. On one issue scientists have generally met concerns over radio frequency radiation with skepticism.
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On the heels of the largest rate hike in nearly a decade, Seattle City Light is proposing two more years of rate increases, prompting many people to flinch and a group of prominent businesses to call for greater scrutiny of the utility.
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The top two states for electric cars' lowest operating costs and greenhouse-gas emissions: Idaho and Washington.
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The Transportation Partnership, a group including chambers of commerce, business, union and local officials, has been meeting about every two weeks for about two months talking up the idea of another new source for road and transit improvements.
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If FERC rules in favor of Big Wind and Big Solar, the new policy would add billions of dollars onto the utility bills of residents of at least a dozen states --— including Washington, California and New York --— that will receive little or no benefit from the new power lines.
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Electricity generated from wind or sun still generally costs more — and sometimes a lot more — than the power squeezed from coal or natural gas.
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The largest increase in litigation has been challenges to federal action, specifically industry challenges to proposed EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, according to researchers.
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Researchers report that bisphenol A (BPA) levels found in fresh and canned food as well as food wrapped in plastic packaging in the U.S. are nearly 1,000 times lower than government “tolerable daily intake” levels.
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President Obama's top advisers recommended cutting off funding for a federal loan-guarantee program meant to spur the construction of wind and solar farms and other alternative energy projects, saying taxpayer dollars might be better spent elsewhere.
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A key to success was an independent campaign to proactively brand anti-climate forces early, personally. Thanks to California's very clear campaign finance disclosure rules we were able to single out the biggest funders of Prop 23, namely Valero and Tesoro.
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Today, the Union County, Oregon, elections office reports 52 percent of county voters advised elected officials to say no to the new wind farm, which is backed by Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy.
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The 2011 base charge for residential electricity users would rise about 18 percent -- from $11 to $13 per month -- if the ordinance is approved.
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NEWSWEEK's 2010 Green Rankings is a data-driven assessment of the largest companies in the U.S. and in the world.
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The Washington State UTC approved a 2.1% rate decrease for Northwest Natural Gas customers and a nearly 2% rate increase for Puget Sound Energy customers, according to separate news releases sent Thursday.
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Energy costs and a renewable energy mandate will push power bills up by almost a third over the next four years for Benton PUD customers.
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A report issued Tuesday by the NERC found that that up to 75 gigawatts — about 7% of the national power capacity — could be forced offline by 2015 as companies either shutter plants or install new energy-consuming pollution controls.
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According to a study due out Tuesday, more than 95% of consumer products examined committed at least one offense of "greenwashing," a term used to describe unproven environmental claims.
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Ethanol is a powerful solvent. The fuel system components for outboard motors (and most other small engines) were designed to burn gasoline, not ethanol. Only outboards produced after about 1990 were built with ethanol-resistant parts.
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Given the enormous value of the cash grants to the renewable energy industry and many local economies, now is not the time to argue about the 1603 grant program.
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| By: Center for American Progress |
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The Obama administration is crediting its anti-recession stimulus plan with creating up to 50,000 jobs on dozens of wind farms, even though many of those wind farms were built before the stimulus money began to flow or even before President Obama was inaugurated.
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An audit by the inspector general focused on stimulus bill work done by the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County. The audit looked at 15 homes and found that 12 failed final inspection “because of substandard workmanship.”
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It isn't financial incentives. It isn't more information. It's guilt...The magic ingredient: Peer pressure.
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People who drive a hybrid or all-electric vehicle both will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% when compared with a traditional internal combustion engine in most areas of the U.S.
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A broad coalition has long opposed this increase in blend limits, known as E15, citing a lack of adequate testing of the impacts of higher ethanol blends on toxic air pollution from broken tailpipes.
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Ethanol has only about two-thirds as much energy per gallon as gasoline, so it has to sell for about one-third less than gasoline before it is equal in price per mile.
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To balance the budget, utility officials are recommending “system average rate increases” for each of the next two years of 5.7% for Tacoma Power customers, and 5% for Tacoma Water customers.
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Washington State ranks 6th as one of top states in the nation in energy efficiency policies.
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The administration offered terms no better than Constellation could get from private investors, said Christine Tezak, a senior energy and environment analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co.
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Utility managers say reselling the wind power at a loss is cheaper than displacing energy generated by the dirt-cheap federal hydropower system or Clark’s own natural gas-fired River Road Generating Plant.
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The new study was carried out between 2004 and 2007 during a solar waning phase. But, contrary to expectation, radiation in the visible part of the energy spectrum increased, rather than declined, which caused a warming effect.
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Of WCI's seven U.S. member states, only two — California and New Mexico — have made progress toward creating a cap-and-trade regime. The governors of Oregon and Washington State proposed enabling legislation, but were rebuffed by their legislatures.
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The groups challenge the validity of an environmental impact statement, saying it doesn't require Nippon to meter how much water it uses for the project from the Elwha River, and that it inadequately addresses air pollutants.
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Lawsuits and complaints about turbine noise, vibrations and subsequent lost property value have cropped up in Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Massachusetts, among other states.
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Dishwashers use 45% less energy than they did two decades ago and refrigerators use 51% less. But on a per-capita basis, Americans still require about 70 million BTU's a year to heat, cool and power their homes, just as they did in 1971.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 30, 2010
A new Department of Ecology proposal to charge a 'fee' for water rights threatens to reopen one of the Legislature's longest-running battles. Farm-country lawmakers call it an outrage.
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Perhaps what President Obama means by “green jobs” is that we’ll be moving lots of American greenbacks overseas to create jobs elsewhere. But at least we’ll be saving energy, right? Not according to a recent study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Barring a sudden end to the Southwest’s 11-year drought, the distribution of the river’s dwindling bounty is likely to be reordered as early as next year because the flow of water cannot keep pace with the region’s demands.
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Renewables now comprise fully one quarter of global power capacity from all sources and delivered 18% of global electricity supply in 2009. And for the second year in a row, more money was invested in new renewable power capacity than in new fossil fuel capacity.
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| By: Renewable Energy World |
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Two new studies bolstering the “hockey stick” hypothesis were published just recently. They show average temperatures in the northern hemisphere holding roughly steady for 900 years or so, until the 20th century, when they rise sharply.
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Weatherization isn't the only stimulus infrastructure project slowed by bureaucracy. Awards worth $8 billion for high-speed rail connections were announced in January, but the Federal Railroad Administration has only distributed 7% of the funds to date.
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Ms. Jackson wants to set the nation's air-quality standard for ozone at between 60 and 70 parts per billion, compared with 75 ppb currently.
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Critics agree that felling trees for a biomass plant would eventually be carbon neutral, as long as new trees were planted to take up the carbon released by burning the old ones. The problem: absorbing the carbon released into the atmosphere could take decades.
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Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and California are the greenest states, according to a NMI survey of more than 3,000 U.S. consumers in the 25 largest states.
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Air quality was improving before the passage of the 1970 CAA. Environmentalists should give more credit to innovation and less to top-down regulation.
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A group called Concerned Citizens of Mason County is challenging a decision last month by the Port of Shelton to sign a lease option that would allow Adage to build the biomass plant.
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Some 381 energy projects — most of which produce renewable energy — are currently tangled in red tape. Clearing them could provide 250,000 jobs.
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By the federal government's own economic model, these tax hikes would lead to huge, immediate job losses and double-tax American businesses -- driving investment to foreign competitors that don't face the same tax burden.
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The new study doesn't change the essential fact that we are losing ice on a daily basis from Greenland and West Antarctica --— 104 billion metric tons is still a lot of water to be adding to the global seas each year.
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The United Steelworkers union launched a broad challenge Thursday against China, alleging that it is illegally helping its companies seize a dominant market share of the renewable energy industry.
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"It's impossible to go out and buy a building with a guarantee for how much energy it won't use...and the LEED system, by basing everything on energy predictions, continues that. This is one of the reasons why it's so popular — because it's painless."
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George Will writes that Professor Walter Mead, who says that he is a skeptic about climate policy rather than climate science, says that the environmental movement has "become the voice of the establishment, of the tenured, of the technocrats."
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| By: Washington Post Columnist |
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The Puget Sound Partnership is broken, but the Sound really needs better eco-monitoring and new land-use patterns. And that will require the hardest change of all: cultural change.
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Twenty years after northern spotted owls were protected under the Endangered Species Act, their numbers continue to decline, and scientists aren't certain whether the birds will survive even though logging was banned on much of the old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest where they live in order ...
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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.
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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.
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| By: Center for American Progress |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Carbon emissions offset market is being gamed when it comes to a byproduct from making refrigerants.
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Older trees store more carbon, but younger trees absorb more carbon - so, cut 'em down or not?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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."
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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.
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The estimated U.S. energy use in 2009 equaled 94.6 quadrillion BTUs, down from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008.
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| By: Christain Science Monitor |
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Policymakers continue to promise new “clear-eyed” approaches to stimulating job growth; unfortunately, what we tend to see is the same recycled “green” rhetoric.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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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.
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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.
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| By: Washington Policy Center |
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More than 30 traditional coal plants have been built across the country since 2008 or are under construction.
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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.
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What dominates debate now is what some see as the possibility — and others see as the inevitability — of cost overruns.
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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.
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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.
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Tight Ag Lending Creates Strain After Years of Poor Crops
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| By: Yakima Herald-Republic |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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| By: Lexington Herald-Leader |
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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%.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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New research reveals carbon emissions from rich nations could actually rise under loopholes in the proposed UN climate deal.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A subgroup — California, New Mexico, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia — intends to move first in limiting carbon dioxide emissions.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The image of forest products companies in Washington State has improved dramatically over the past 20 years.
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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.
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"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."
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| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
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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.
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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 ...
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The latest Gallup poll shows 62 percent of Americans – an all-time high – favor the use of nuclear energy.
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One challenge in the western U.S. is that the power transmission grid has just about reached its capacity to accommodate new generation.
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Phase 1 is smaller, billions over budget and more than a dozen years late compared to what officials originally promised voters.
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| By: Washington Policy Center Blog |
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At $750/MTC02e, corn ethanol has to be the most expensive carbon mitigation strategy ever considered.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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| By: Huffington Post Op-Ed |
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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.
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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.
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Biologists say the numbers of salmon and steelhead heading up the Columbia River are well above average, including a record run of sockeye.
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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.
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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.
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| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It comes as no surprise that the Golden State gets the gold, followed by silver for Washington, in Site Selection’s inaugural Sustainability Rankings.
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| By: Site Selection Magazine |
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The press and Internet are full of straightforward suggestions for easy ways of improving the cleanup, but the federal government is resisting these remedies.
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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.
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New carbon-trading laws intended to reduce climate-changing pollution emissions took effect Thursday in New Zealand, immediately sending gas prices higher.
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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.
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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.
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The vans are a jet-flash of white paint as they streak down the turnpike, gunning it to 90 mph.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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Salmon advocates think that anyone who takes an unbiased look at the costs and benefits of those dams will call in the bulldozers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The new dean, Lisa Graumlich, said she believes the debate has moved beyond whether climate change is happening to what the impacts will mean.
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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.
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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.
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| By: Center for American Progress |
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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.
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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.
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Top honors went to Washington State, followed by Vermont, New York, Oregon and California.
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On the 100th anniversary of Montana's Glacier National Park, it appears the glaciers are all melting away.
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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.
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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.
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| By: Congressional Budget Office |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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When it comes to environmental regulation, California doesn’t wait for the Feds to ride in and lay down the law.
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On Tuesday, the federal agency released an 80-page glossy report to help Americans make sense of climate change data.
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The 2010 Legislature struck out on three opportunities to help the state budget and protect the environment.
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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."
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Environmentalists sweeten proposal by offering exactly enough to balance the state budget -- plan would raise gas prices, cut money for roads.
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Attorney general's property-rights bills are dying for lack of a hearing. Is it local-government opposition? Or his possible campaign for governor?
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Environmentalists' political war on BPA plastics now turns to state Senate -- will lawmakers expand ban to sports-water bottles?
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Rate payers could be big losers if no compromise is reached -- one utility predicts 20 percent electric-bill increase without changes to I-937.
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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?
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A Senate panel passes a bill banning BPA plastics in baby products -- a nod to environmental activists who won't wait for scientific consensus.
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Attorney General Rob McKenna takes the side of property-rights advocates with bills that would block government land-grabs for private development.
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Washington activists want the state to join a national movement to ban BPA plastics, but the politics are way ahead of the science.
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And that's not all lawmakers will be arguing about -- new bills would legalize marijuana, privatize liquor stores, and crack down on plasma TVs.
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As an agency director, Ted Sturdevant is an unknown quantity -- and observers of one of the state's most controversial agencies are hopeful.
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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.
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| By: Erik Smith/ Washington State Wire |
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Feb. 4, 2012
A decision by a Democratic chairwoman to kill a pair of high-profile education bills has triggered an all-but-unheard-of standoff in a Senate committee and a backroom blowup among the Senate Democrats. And it demonstrates this year, as last, that the moderate Roadkill Dems hold all the cards.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Feb. 3, 2012
Gov. Christine Gregoire’s proposal for a $1.50 tax on oil-by-the-barrel to pay for road construction and environmental projects is looking like it has a dead battery, as three key senators say the governor’s plan just isn’t clicking. Meanwhile, a pair of influential House lawmakers have introduced a constitutional amendment that would block the green lobby's efforts to tax "Big Oil" once and for all.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Feb. 3, 2012
House Republicans show what they mean when they say "Fund Education First," unveilling a partial budget plan that deals only with K-12 education. Everything else can come later. Democrats say it's no way to write a budget.
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By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | 01.31.12
Newt is not going to quit. He is going to continue to try and hold his cool, not go off on someone or about some issue. He is as smart as any one of them, continues to talk of solid experienced realignment of our government...
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By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | 01.26.12
Do we have to continue to talk about what's going on in the real world, the demands being placed on future generations of students, the drag on success created by 20th century education unions, the desire of most educators to do the right thing, and the current lack of courage by Washington's elected to step up?
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By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | 1.19.12
SB 6369 simple states that where there are “gaps” in the evidence don't worry about it, just go ahead with the plan. In a world of DOE staff looking for every opportunity to prove their worth to certain constituencies this is a free pass.
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By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | 1.18.12
Next, do we need a bill to modernize a statute? Probably, because...you guessed it, modern words for modern technology. Excuse the word functionality. The drafters and advocates must think that the state EPA actually works, you know, functions.
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Editorial: Use Gavels to Doom Promising Legislation on Charter Schools and Teacher Evaluations
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Gregoire Drops By Brown's Office for Frank and Open Exchange of Views
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| By: Jerry Cornfield/ The (Everett) Herald |
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After Chairwoman McAuliffe Blocks Vote, Blames Committee Members For Balking on Everything Else
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Measure Will Close Liquor Stores June 1
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Former Lawmaker Running for Thurston County Superior Court Vacancy
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Editorial: What a Proud Moment!
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Would Allow Public Agencies to Challenge Burdensome Requests -- Pam Roach May Cast Deciding Vote
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National Organization for Marriage Gets Set to Run Repeal Referendum
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Measly $200K Given From Washington State -- PACs Are Reshaping Presidential Politics
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| By: Jim Brunner/ Seattle Times |
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| By: Jim Camden/ Spokesman-Review |
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Steve Forbes and Rob McKenna write, "What does it mean for you? You will pay more – not less, as promised – for your health care coverage."
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A bill working its way through the Legislature has triggered something of a bizarro world in Olympia, with liberals lambasting a government takeover of health care and two of the state's most powerful unions fighting each other.
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Washington State is ranked last in the nation for having the fewest psychiatric beds for patients.
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Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco argue that sugar is toxic and needs to be taxed and controlled.
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About 47,000 Medicaid patients in Clark County are about to be thrust into turmoil -- as will the health care plan that has served them for 18 years -- if the state Health Care Authority has its way.
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A federal judge is expected to rule this month whether Washington state can require pharmacies to sell the Plan B contraceptive, even if the druggists object on religious grounds.
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Whereas inadequate medical care accounts for 10% of premature deaths in the United States, behavioral patterns, social circumstances, and environmental exposures have a far greater effect, accounting for roughly 60% of deaths.
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| By: New England Journal of Medicine |
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A report released today by the actuarial firm Milliman Inc. said the new tax in 2014 will cost the Medicaid program between $36.5 billion and $41.9 billion over 10 years. At least $13 billion will be borne by states.
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"Open enrollment has to be ready to go by Oct. 1, 2013, so in January of 2013 we have to submit our products and rates for [state] approval," said Alissa Fox, senior vice president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
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