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The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed the House narrowly on Friday. The epic, historic, landmark (insert favorite, happy superlative here) piece of legislation that sets limits on greenhouse gases and invests in renewable energy passed narrowly with a 219 to 212 vote. Even President Barack Obama made last-minute calls to get this thing approved. So how did lawmakers vote in the Cascadia region?  The tally was an even split for and...

The gist: At a moment when the most sweeping climate and energy bill ever is moving in Congress, polling shows that the American public is hungry for exactly this kind of action. But it’s not a slam-dunk. Our job now is to keep the momentum going with smart communications that preempt the shallow claims made by those who oppose real climate and energy solutions. This month’s Flashcard: Trends in polling...

Editor’s note: The federal version of Sightline Cap and Trade 101 is now available. Download Cap and Trade 101: A Federal Climate Policy Primer here.   I’ve been poring over the 948 pages of Waxman-Markey, the cap-and-trade bill that now appears likely (fingers crossed) to pass the US House of Representatives this month or next. My grade? Overall, I give Representatives Henry Waxman of California (pictured) and Edward Markey of...

We have written before about incentive programs to promote energy efficiency in Portland and Vancouver, including a post that featured the race to find programs that also create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That post mentioned Seattle’s new program—the Green Building Capital Initiative—which was announced on Earth Day. Now, a closer look at that program, some of its key elements and how it compares others in the region. Like...

The 2009 Washington State legislature came to a close last month and talk of a special session has dissipated. So how did the environment—and opportunities for efficiency, transportation and smart energy choices—fare during this latest gathering of law makers? Overall the 2009 session was a mix of defeats for larger more comprehensive measures but wins for smaller, more focused legislation.  Let’s start with Priorities for a Healthy Washington, a legislative...

The response to my post on Oregon Representative Krieger’s bike registration bill was impressive. Lots of people read the post and lots of people commented.  Representative Krieger’s bill got attention at the nationallevel as well. There are a lot of active bikers out there who had a lot to say about this. To be honest, I’m pretty skeptical about the motives behind bike registration, so I tried to find some...

Last summer, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) prepared a report to the Vancouver City Council on the city’s EcoDensity Initiative pointing out the initiative’s weakness on affordability. The backers of EcoDensity, a City initiative to make environmental sustainability a primary goal in all city planning decisions, argue that increasing supply by adding density will result in a decrease in housing costs. That follows basic economic principles, but we...

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell just came out in favor of “Cap and Dividend”—a system for curbing global warming gases by auctioning off a limited and declining number of carbon “permits”.  Good for her—we think that Congress should give Cap and Divident a close and sympathetic look. But one aspect of  this Tacoma Tribune article on Cantwell’s announcement is simply baffling; either Cantwell is confused or the newspaper is… Here’s how...

Funding local libraries in Washington and Oregon has always been a struggle—and even more so in tough economic times. The Multnomah County Library system relies mostly on levies and bonds and Seattle funds its libraries from the City’s general fund. While Multnomah County won’t face another election for some time Seattle’s prospects are looking dim this budget season. One point library advocates can make is that libraries reduce green house...

Update, April 30, 2009: Please also see two follow up posts: The Managed-Price Approach to Cap and Trade Is Managed-Price Cap and Trade Different From A Carbon Tax? *** Washington’s Congressman Jim McDermott just released a new climate plan, but I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It gets some things right, but it may cause some relatively serious problems too. Here’s how he described it in a recent blog post:...