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Gasoline vs. Forests: A Carbon Smackdown
As anyone who’s spent some time in the woods out here might guess, the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest store an awful lot of carbon. Yet for many years, a combination of rapid logging and occasional forest fires meant that the region’s “net ecosystem carbon balance”—the scientific term for how much carbon the forests contain—was on the decline. But a new study (pdf link) out of Oregon State University...Read more » -
Washington Carbon Tax: New Model and Analysis
Sightline is very pleased to be hosting a new analytical paper and model, "Washington State Carbon Tax: Fiscal and Environmental Impacts" by Keibun Mori, a recent graduate of the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs. He created the Carbon Tax Analysis Model (C-TAM), for the Energy Office at the Washington State Dept of Commerce. It's an impressive piece of work on several levels. Mori's analysis, which centers on a British Columbia-style carbon tax, is almost certainly the most comprehensive treatment yet published on a state-level carbon tax in Washington, and maybe anywhere. Even better, the spreadsheet-based C-TAM model manages to be open-source and comprehensible, but still allow for a remarkable degree of complexity and user input. Mori includes a terrifically thorough treatment of fuel prices and demand elasticity (which is a subject of much debate and confusion in climate geek circles). The result is a solid look at the economic effects and environmental benefits of a state carbon tax in Washington.
Sightline is very pleased to be hosting a new analytical paper and model, “Washington State Carbon Tax: Fiscal and Environmental Impacts“ by Keibun Mori, a recent graduate of the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. He created the Carbon Tax Analysis Model (C-TAM), for the Energy Office at the Washington State Dept of Commerce. It’s an impressive piece of work on several levels. Mori’s analysis, which centers on a British...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 8/5/11
Eric dP: I’ve only got one this week, but it’s a doozy. At the Missoula Independent, Matthew Frank’s “Orient Express: Will Montana become a coal colony?” is a first-rate piece about the very real and very localized dangers of a globalizing coal trade. If you care about coal, the West, or climate change, it’s a must read. Clark:
Eric dP: I’ve only got one this week, but it’s a doozy. At the Missoula Independent, Matthew Frank’s “Orient Express: Will Montana become a coal colony?” is a first-rate piece about the very real and very localized dangers of a globalizing coal trade. If you care about coal, the West, or climate change, it’s a must read. Clark:Read more » -
Freeing Taxis
Update 8/11: I have an addendum to this post published here. Also, the chart was altered to reflect a slightly higher number for Vancouver. What if the Northwest’s cities legally capped the number of pizza delivery cars? What if, despite growing urban population and disposable incomes, our Pizza Delivery Oversight Boards had scarcely issued new delivery licenses since 1975? Pizza delivery would be expensive and slow; citizens would rise up...Read more » -
Public Opinion on Climate and Weather
In late July, nearly half of the US population was under a heat advisory and more than 220 heat records were broken. It’s estimated that at least 22 deaths were heat related. In Canada, temperature records were broken in two dozen cities across Ontario and Quebec on Thursday, including the hottest ever July temperature in Toronto, at 100.2F (37.9C). Based on the available data, neither the 2011 heat wave nor...Read more » -
Coal Exports From Canada
Sightline is publishing a new research memo today that documents the facts about Canada's coal exporting capacity. The memo finds that ports in British Columbia do not have sufficient capacity to handle the volumes of coal planned for Washington ports. The state coal lobby claims that US coal exports will simply shift to BC if Washington doesn't build its own export facilities. Yet the numbers tell a different story. The truth is that even if BC's coal ports were to devote all of their planned capacity expansions to shipping solely US coal, they could still handle only a small fraction of the coal planned for Cherry Point and Longview.
Sightline is publishing a new research memo today that documents the facts about Canada’s coal exporting capacity. The memo finds that ports in British Columbia do not have sufficient capacity to handle the volumes of coal planned for Washington ports. The state coal lobby claims that US coal exports will simply shift to BC if Washington doesn’t build its own export facilities. Yet the numbers tell a different story. The...Read more » -
Getting Smart on Sewage
A rainstorm—a real gully washer—hits the Northwest. In numerous cities with antiquated public plumbing, the rain seeps into cracked sewage lines and flows into stormwater drains that link to the sewer system. From Port Angeles to Seattle to Spokane, treatment plants are overwhelmed by the deluge, causing raw sewage to spill into Port Angeles Harbor, Puget Sound, and the Spokane River. The sewage carries bacteria, viruses, and other pollutants that...Read more » -
Letting Cities Slow Traffic
A shorter version of this item ran on the Seattle Times’ op-ed page on August 2, 2011. This version includes links, a chart, and additional analysis. On Thursday afternoon, I got a pit in my stomach when I found strings of yellow police tape blocking the bike commute on Seattle’s Dexter Avenue. I learned over the hours that followed, with all of Seattle, that an SUV had struck and fatally...Read more » -
Bremerton Seeks More Bang for its Clean-Water Buck
The city of Bremerton on the western shore of Puget Sound has scored a serious environmental achievement. The Navy town has become Washington's first city to unravel a complicated system of mixed sewage and stormwater waste, dramatically shrinking the amount of pollution dumped into the Sound. The city recently celebrated its $50 million achievement, receiving kudos from the governor and head of the Ecology Department. But as I explore in a story posted today on Crosscut, even as the city officials feel the love of their eco success, some of them wonder if it would have benefited local waters more to have spread that money around to other green endeavors.
The city of Bremerton on the western shore of Puget Sound has scored a serious environmental achievement. The Navy town has become Washington’s first city to unravel a complicated system of mixed sewage and stormwater waste, dramatically shrinking the amount of pollution dumped into the Sound. The city recently celebrated its $50 million achievement, receiving kudos from the governor and head of the Ecology Department. But as I explore in...Read more » -
Law and Order and Parking Lots
There’s no better measure of our perverse relationship with cars than the fact that nearly every city and town in North America has laws requiring drinking establishments to provide parking, and yet roadside memorials to victims of drunk driving are mostly illegal. A single year of alcohol-impaired driving kills more Americans than the last decade of war has, but our land use codes practically encourage driving home from taverns. Bar...Read more »