Current Stories
Editor's Top Picks
Views: Rainwater runoff the key to a green city
Victoria Times Colonist
03/17/2010
Stormwater runoff carries vast quantities of pollution into our streams and oceans. But rainwater management practices have recently been developed that make the 21st-century green city possible. Instead of relying heavily on pipes and concrete, this new approach relies upon soil, trees and open space to naturally absorb, store, evaporate and filter rainwater.
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Views: When politics and religion trump science, education suffers
Salem Statesman Journal
03/16/2010
At a time when American students rank an abysmal 21st in science literacy when compared with students around the world, state legislatures should be passing laws to strengthen science education -- or at least refrain from enacting bills that make matters worse.
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Would you like water with those fries?
Seattle Times
03/14/2010
The federal government is doing what once had been unthinkable: building a new stretch of pipeline and draining more water from the Columbia River system to aid potato farmers. A lot is riding on what happens next in North America's french fry capital: the fabric of Eastern Washington, a sizable bite of the state's economy, and future management of dwindling salmon runs.
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Gold claims upend Oregon wilderness
Oregonian
03/14/2010
Some are aghast at a plans to dredge one of Oregon's purest rivers for gold and helicoptering crews into a wilderness area to do it. But a neatly barbered real estate developer from Washington state says historic mining law won't let anyone interfere.
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WA environmental bills that lived and died
KPLU
03/14/2010
In the regular legislative session that just wrapped up in Olympia, Washington lawmakers considered a raft of environmental proposals. Here's what passed, and what didn't.
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Views: Smell testing sewer money for bikeways
Oregonian
03/15/2010
Portland must decide whether the plan is truly clever or breaches public trust in how projects are funded.
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Obama wants more nuclear power, but what about the waste?
Crosscut
03/09/2010
The administration is trying to get out of plans for storing waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, at the same time as the president wants more nuclear plants to generate electricity. Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna is dubious about this, and where it might leave Hanford.
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Views: Congress may have to help hybrid taxi fleets
Seattle Times
03/09/2010
New York, Seattle and several other cities want to switch their taxi fleets over to all-hybrid vehicles, but they've run into a big legal snag, and Congress may have to come to their rescue, writes columnist Neal Peirce. Switching cabs to hybrids promises some potentially stunning gains.
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The final word? Lawmakers pass 520 bridge bill
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/09/2010
State lawmakers on Monday approved a 520 bridge bill that allows work to proceed on a replacement for the Lake Washington span but doesn't address the concerns of various interest groups in the city concerned about transit and design issues.
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Group sues to put grouse on endangered list
Boise Idaho Statesman
03/09/2010
Western Watersheds Project didn't wait long to challenge the Obama administration's sage grouse decision.
The group that has long urged listing of the grouse that lives in 11 states filed a suit in the Boise federal court of US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
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OR governor gathers drought data in Klamath Basin
Fresno Bee
03/09/2010
Gov. Ted Kulongoski is traveling to Klamath Falls to hear about the prospects for drought and how severe irrigation cutbacks could be after the needs of federally protected fish are met.
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Obama turns up the volume in health care bid
New York Times
03/09/2010
President Obama challenged wavering members of his party on Monday not to give in to political fears about supporting health care legislation, asserting that the urgency of getting a bill through Congress should trump any concern about the consequences for Democrats in November.
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Good for bikes, good for stormwater
Oregonian
03/07/2010
When Mayor Sam Adams said he wanted to use $20 million in sewer money to help kickstart the city's bicycle master plan, a lot of people scoffed. What do sewers have to do with bikes? Well, Adams has come up with a connection and plan to dovetail the city's "green streets" initiative with the bike plan's call for bicycle boulevards.
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Greenhouse gases: Highs and lows
The Economist
03/07/2010
In negotiating on nuclear weapons the preferred stance is "Trust but verify." In negotiations on climate change there seems little opportunity for either.
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WA Senate passes tax package
Olympian
03/08/2010
Majority Democrats in the Washington state Senate narrowly approved an $890 million tax package Sunday, setting the stage for a four-day sprint toward adjournment of their recession-plagued session.
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Whatcom college to require sustainability course
Bellingham Herald
03/08/2010
Whatcom Community College students are already required to take classes that fit diversity, global and intensive-writing requirements. Next fall, another topic will be added to the list: sustainability.
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BC taxpayers benefit from carbon tax
Vancouver Sun
03/03/2010
BC's new carbon tax was supposed to be revenue neutral, and in its first year it almost was. The levy on greenhouse gas-emitting activities yielded $306 million, compared to $313 million spent that same year on measures to benefit taxpayers: rebates to low-income people, and a reduction in personal income and business taxes.
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BC deserves a 'gold medal in green rhetoric'
Toronto Globe and Mail
03/02/2010
Praised in the past as the greenest government in Canada, British Columbia came under fire from environmentalists yesterday for a budget they say negates the impact of clean-energy initiatives by offering bigger subsidies to the oil and gas industry.
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Campbell blames climate for 'Spring Games'
Toronto Globe and Mail
03/02/2010
The record-breaking warm weather that made a soggy mess of Cypress Mountain, forcing Olympic organizers to truck snow to the slopes, was caused by climate change, BC Premier Gordon Campbell says.
And witnessing the "Spring Olympics" has convinced Mr. Campbell he must accelerate his campaign against global warming.
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Lone lawmaker triggers federal furloughs
Seattle Times
03/02/2010
The federal government Monday began to furlough workers, while hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans nationwide braced for an end of their unemployment checks and health-insurance benefits while doctors saw fees for treating Medicare patients decline -- the result of a one-man roadblock for a Senate spending bill
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Deadline to comment on sale of genetically altered alfalfa
Seattle Times
03/02/2010
The USDA will accept comments through Wednesday on whether genetically altered alfalfa seeds can again be marketed. The crop was approved five years ago but then banned by court order.
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Views: Why Bellevue's Vision Line makes some sense
Crosscut
03/02/2010
It avoids prolonged neighborhood fights and may, long term, shape the new Eastside and attract more riders than the proposed Sound Transit route.
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Views: Bellevue's Vision Line transit proposal has got it all wrong
Crosscut
03/02/2010
It's got so many bad, anti-transit, anti-urban, anti-environmental ideas as to make it seem like a plot to discredit Sound Transit coming to the Eastside.
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Seattle wants a few more changes in 520 bill
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/02/2010
With just a few days remaining in the legislative session, there's some nervousness at Seattle City Hall over the design of the new 520 Bridge.
Despite an amended bill that would give Seattle more ways to get what it wants, City Councilmembers still would like a few more things.
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That giant sucking sound
Los Angeles Times
02/28/2010
A California water resources board plan, backed by environmentalists, would end practice of sucking in ocean water - along with small animals, fish larvae and at least one person - to cool power plants.
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