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When it comes to climate, we’ve been watchingCaliforniaforawhile and wondering why the climate buzz is particularly loud in Cali. Does citizen concern spur lawmakers into action or does state action spur buzz among citizens? Or both? Nowadays it’s definitely both. Californians are ahead of the curve when it comes to opinions about both threats from climate pollution and potential opportunities; they’re savvy about policy options, and regional impacts. According to...

Update:Read the sequel to this post, where Alan reconsiders plug-ins. The weekend before Halloween, my car-less family got a loaner plug-in hybrid electric car to try. You see, the City of Seattle and some other local public agencies are testing the conversion of some existing hybrids to plug-ins to accelerate the spread of these near-zero-emissions vehicles. As a favor and, perhaps, for some publicity (this post), the city’s program manager...

Numbers are current as of 5:50 a.m. on 11/7/07. Some early election results this morning. These numbers will change  a bit, of course, as mailed ballots continue to trickle in… In property rights: Oregon’s Measure 49, the partial antidote to Measure 37, was passing easily by 61 to 39. In transportation: Puget Sound’s Proposition 1—the roads and transit propsal—looked headed for defeat by a margin of  44 to 56. (Full results here.)...

This fall, the Sightline research shop has been cranking out a bunch of new maps, analyses, and tools on timely Northwest issues—from climate to property rights. To help you keep track, here’s a cheatsheet on what’s new. Share them, use them, tell us what you think. (Quick reminder: All graphics are downloadable in several versions.) Why transportation matters so much in Northwest climate policy: Visual evidence of why transportation emissions...

This is excellent news: Seattle is one of the first major U.S. cities to claim it has cut greenhouse-gas emissions enough to meet the targets of the international Kyoto treaty aimed at combating global warming. The achievement, at a time when the city has enjoyed a boom in population and jobs, sets Seattle apart both from the nation as a whole and other cities that have seen greenhouse gases soar...

A couple of weeks ago I was in Vancouver, BC at a conference where it seemed like everyone was talking about a new book called Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change. Reviewing dozens of empirical studies, the book’s central argument is that urban form is inextricably linked to climate. Low density sprawl has been a principal contributor to North American climate emissisons. And by the same...

I don’t always balance my checkbook (ok, almost never, only when there is a problem). I only check my investments a couple of times a year, often when there has been a big market swing. And, call me small minded, but I also don’t always take into account in the long-term economic effects of my energy use. Like many people, to focus in on the big-picture in my day- to-day,...

Silly me. A few years back, I was astonished when oil prices had nearly touched $50 per barrel—which at the time seemed exorbitant. And just over a month ago, I was agog that oil prices had breached $80 a barrel. I should have saved my breath. Today, US crude oil futures reached nearly $90 per barrel—a $10 increase in the past month alone. And talk of $100 per barrel oil...

Hugely good conservation news yesterday from British Columbia, where officials agreed to put 400,000 hectares (almost 1 million acres) of forest under wilderness-quality protection. The move is largely to protect mountain caribou, whose range has dwindled substantially (see maps here). Mountain caribou populations have been declining for decades in North America so that they now maintain only a toehold presence in the continental U.S. (in northeast Washington and northern Idaho,...

A decade ago, we wrote that the bicycle is one of the world’s seven everyday wonders because it’s so simple, effective, affordable, and pollution-free. To that list, we might have added “enriching.” Bicycling for transportation pumps money into local economies. Bikes are wheels of fortune. If your community spends money building bikeways, you and your neighbors will cycle more. Your cycling will put extra money in the local economy. (I’ll...