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Carbon offsets, which let you pay some money to help fund climate-friendly projects, get the love-hate treatment in today’s New York Times. At issue: are they for real, or just some sort of gimmick?  By contributing money to an offset program, are you really expiating your climate sins, or are you just buying meaningless indulgences? The article finds lots of quotes from people who are skeptical about offsets.  But to...

(Update: We’ve created a better version of this here.) Look how much we’re spending on oil and gas in the Northwest states: Dollars sent out of the Northwest states for oil and gas, year to date, 2007 Total, NW states: 0 Washington: 0 Oregon: 0 Idaho: 0 startClock() If you have javascript enabled on your computer, you should be seeing the year-to-date totals rack up, at a pretty astonishing rate—about...

On the heels of the US Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant (some called it a strong rebuke of the Bush administration’s policies), George W. Bush saw fit to ramp up his language on the issue of global warming (hint: the new key word is “serious”): The decision (of) the Supreme Court we take very seriously. It’s the new law...

Sightline research director Clark Williams-Derry analyzes the Seattle viaduct debate and comes to a few simple conclusions: roads are expensive, rush hour is the worst problem, and the differences between short- and long-term consequences.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of giving up (OK, totaling) our family car. To mark the occasion: a tally of our accomplishments, followed by an announcement of our plans. Driving We reduced our driving by two-thirds compared to our average in recent years. We drove 90 percent less than the average US family of our size and income. We drove about 2,500 miles—about 7 miles a day on average—in Flexcars (mostly),...

Looks like Oregon’s making its move: Gov. Ted Kulongoski is backing a proposal that would force utilities to increase energy efficiency, increase their reliance on renewable energy and limit greenhouse gas emissions. He said he would work with other Western states to discuss a regional program called cap-and-trade, but an initial program just within Oregon also is viable. So it looks like Oregon is set to follow California’s lead: establishing...

Here’s a decent newspaper article with a lousy headline. The article is about pending new legislation that would remove parking requirements in Seattle’s densest in-city neighborhoods. Not so scary, I think. But the headline is sneering and editorializing. Before we dive in, let’s get something straight. The new rules won’t eliminate parking, or make it illegal, or even tax it. All they do is–gasp–stop forcing businesses and developers to provide...

Each time I walk to a Flexcar in my neighborhood, I pass scores of parked private cars. I sometimes fantasize about strolling up to one of them, swiping my Flexcard over the dash, and driving away. I’d be debited automatically; my neighbor would be credited, less a slice for Flexcar. And I’d have a vastly larger pool of vehicles at my disposal. This fantasy is less fantastical than it may...

According to this, California’s total greenhouse gas emissions rose by about 14 percent from 1990 through 2004. Ok, so that’s not exactly good news. But it’s not the worst news in the world either, really. Over the same period, California’s population grew by about 20 percent; so, running the numbers, it looks as if per person emissions fell by about, oh, about 5 percent. That is, at the same time...

This is huge. From the Wall Street Journal: California, the nation’s most populous state and a longtime bellwether on environmental policy, will impose the first broad cap in the U.S. on greenhouse-gas emissions, in a clear break with the federal government over global warming. In essence, California is going to create the nation’s first-ever carbon market, based on the same sort of cap-and-trade system that was so effective at reducing...