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Green stormwater engineers have joined the ranks of fashion designers, Donald Trump wannabes, and gourmet chefs. That’s right, there are now contests for designing the best environmentally friendly stormwater solutions. The practice appears to have gotten its start in Houston with a contest that drew 230 design professionals, offered $45,000 in cash prizes, and even has videos on YouTube. It’s not exactly American Idol, but c’mon, polluted runoff is a...

Eric dP: I’ve got a pair of good suggestions this week. In the Vancouver Observer, Barry Saxifrage looks at national emissions trends and reveals that the world leader is—it’s hard to believe it, but it’s true—the United States. And as he points out, US reductions are no small potatoes: How big is a cut of 430 million tonnes of CO2? It’s equal to all CO2 from all Canadians outside Alberta....

I’ve been thinking about upgrading to an electric car for a while now. And on today’s market, there are plenty of models to choose from. But having a lot of options makes for a complicated decision! Each model of electric car has its own unique mix of efficiency, charging time, and driving range—and since buying a car is a big decision, I want to find the model that makes the...

At this point, most serious researchers agree that the average city-dweller produces fewer climate-warming emissions than a typical suburban or rural resident. City-folks tend to drive less, and walk or use transit more, than those of us who live in suburbs or out in the country. And city dwellers also tend to have less living space per capita, and are more likely to share walls or ceilings with their neighbors—all...

Anna: Jon Stewart gives the best explanation I’ve seen of cognitive dissonance and how it plays out: Two rats in a bag! And in related cognitive dissonance news: Want partisans to listen to ideas that contradict their views? Give them an ego boost. Our other big pollution problem: Antibiotics. The Heartland Institute went too far lumping mass murderers and terrorists with everybody who’s concerned about climate change. A bunch of their backers are pulling away....

Eric dP: At the Seattle Times, I’ve really enjoyed Linda V. Mapes’ latest round of features on the restoration of the Elwha River, here and here. It’s fascinating to learn about how the national park plans to restore a landscape that’s been submerged for decades. At present, it’s not exactly fertile ground for the sort of plants that will one day make the river valley flourish. I’ve scarcely followed March...

Eric dP: For Northwest history geeks, I recommend reading the introduction to this assessment of Latinos in Washington. It traces the history of Latinos in the region from the earliest Spanish explorers in the region, through settlement, the mid-century Bracero program, and up to the present day. I learned more than a couple of things. Plus, all kinds of fun stuff related to coal trains. Over at Climate Solutions, Ross MacFarlane...

After a topsy-turvy first couple of months—first vacations, then snow—traffic on the newly-tolled SR-520 bridge across Lake Washington seems to have stabilized at about 67,000 cars per day.  That’s down by about a third from last fall’s level, just before the tolls were first levied. But data from the Washington State Department of Transportation shows most of the trips that “disappeared” from SR-520 simply migrated to other routes.

Editor’s note: We’re curious what readers think of this series. Is it useful? What do you like most? How can we make it better? Leave a note in comments. Eric dP: My top recommendation this week goes to James Wells’ righteous rant at Daily Kos, “Pretty Much the Dumbest Idea Ever.” Wells unleashes a real fire-breather on the Northwest coal export plans: The plan is to dig up two trillion...

If you’re out to raise money for transportation projects, one of the more clever methods is the so-called “barrel fee” that is the centerpiece of Governor Gregoire’s new transportation package. It’s structured in such a way that it minimizes impacts on Washington by effectively off-loading the costs to oil companies and out-of-state drivers. In fact, my back-of-the-envelope estimate is that for every dollar residents pay, the state will net roughly $2.20 in...