Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most reader comments.
Crosscut blog posts of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Posted Tue, Sep 8, 9:28 p.m.
Remote farmers had no power, because the private utilities didn't want to bother. So Roosevelt created a government agency to electrify the folks and drive down the rates. He didn't unplug grandma; he plugged her in.
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Posted Thu, Jul 16, 6 a.m.
Forty years ago, we all experienced something we've tried to duplicate ever since: an inspiring global moment that was both scientific and spiritual. But even then, some of us were of two minds about the moon landing.
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Posted Wed, Jul 8, 6 a.m.
Dairy farms are putting in digesters, creating methane to power electrical generators, fertilizer, and cattle bedding. One problem: hydropower in the Northwest is so cheap that farmers can't make money selling their kilowatts.
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Posted Thu, Jun 25, 6 a.m.
Just as Obama's health care and energy reform bills take shape, voters and Congress are newly sensitized over costs, thanks to the way the new President mishandled his stimulus package.
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Posted Fri, May 29, 6 a.m.
A new Supreme, overhauling health care and energy, North Korea, Pakistan. And did I mention the Great Recession?
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Posted Wed, May 6, 6 a.m.
We should not use this money to build Oil Age infrastructure, compounding our energy problems. Yet the state, like many others, is doing just that.
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Posted Fri, Apr 24, 6 a.m.
Seattle used to create civic visionaries who reshaped the urban landscape. Now our civic visionaries have poor math skills.
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Posted Thu, Apr 23, 6 a.m.
The courts, which have rejected plans for Columbia River dams for decades, finally have a good governmental partner. But plenty of legal snarls remain, along with issues relating to climate change.
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Posted Mon, Apr 20, 6 a.m.
Two Northwest buildings, both commercial properties, win top environmental awards, marking a trend to for-profit projects
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Posted Fri, Feb 20, 6 a.m.
Internecine squabbles over hydroelectric power in the Northwest might lead to a new Power Act, possibly opening up the Columbia River system so that other states benefit, such as California. Part 2
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Posted Thu, Feb 19, 6 a.m.
The new money will speed up building lines to the new green energy economy. Or will it just touch off more power struggles? The Northwest has a rich history of these epic battles over public power. Part 1
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Posted Thu, Jan 29, 6 a.m.
The digging up of "historic" nuclear waste at Hanford is an example of the complexities of a system that seeks to both uncover our past and keep the lid on a toxic legacy.
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Posted Fri, Jan 23, 6 a.m.
A quick freeze puts a hold on such last-minute regulations as removing the grey wolf from the endangered list, lifting ban on guns in national parks, and expanding oil shale programs.
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Posted Thu, Dec 4, 6 a.m.
With Obama's new New Deal gaining momentum, let's remain skeptical of big projects that are touted as economic saviors. States like ours may be desperate, but a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.
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Posted Wed, Nov 26, 6 a.m.
When world prices for metals and paper were riding high, Seattle had a little gold mine shipping out its recyclables. Then the prices sank by as much as 75 percent. Gold mine became a black hole.
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Posted Mon, Nov 24, 11 a.m.
A coalition of environmental groups just won a court decision, blocking Shell from drilling exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea. The ruling bears on the impacts of noise on bowhead whales.
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Posted Thu, Nov 6, 9:11 a.m.
The Jefferson County Public Utility District appears to be the only winner among three populist campaigns to take over now-private electric services.
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Posted Thu, Oct 30, 7:35 p.m.
In light of PSE's acquisition by an overseas holding company, residents of Skagit and Jefferson counties and Whidbey Island will decide next week whether to form their own public utility districts.
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Posted Mon, Oct 20, 7:46 p.m.
At $109,000, it's not for everyone. But it's cutting the edge, it's fast, and you can get a sales-tax exemption if you buy a Tesla Roadster.
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Posted Wed, Oct 8, 2 a.m.
A Seattle-area developer and local governments have teamed up to build townhouses that, in theory, will give back more energy than they use. Will that work? It will depend in part on who lives in them.
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Posted Thu, Oct 15, 6 a.m.
It's fall, which means time to turn up the heat. For our writer, who appreciates every step from felling a tree to stacking a cord, there's nothing like heating a home with a fire.
MOREPosted Wed, Mar 25, 6:56 a.m.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation picks a local developer to run its major new sustainability project.
MOREPosted Fri, Jan 30, noon
Not only are jobs getting scarcer, but costs are still rising. What is it about recessions that the government doesn't understand?
MOREPosted Tue, Jan 27, 2:33 p.m.
With Arctic melting, territorial claims are bringing it closer to Alaska.
MOREPosted Sat, Dec 27, 5 p.m. 2008
The clean coal debate just got a new twist, after a dam holding an ashy sludge breaks in Appalachia.
MOREPosted Tue, Nov 18, 10:53 p.m. 2008
There's progress to report on efforts to save two Seattle landmarks.
MOREPosted Sat, Nov 15, 3:18 p.m. 2008
Don't bail the automakers out, and don't bankrupt them. Use the government's purchasing power to transform them to the green economy.
MOREPosted Thu, Nov 6, 12:36 p.m. 2008
Scientists take a pulse before Elwha dam removal.
MOREPosted Thu, Sep 11, 5 p.m. 2008
You may have read in late August that Hanford's B reactor was granted National landmark status by the U.S government. The B reactor was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor and it helped drive the famed Manhattan Project. It produced the plutonium used for the first atomic test blast and for the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The deserved designation offers a hook to check on what's going on with the University of Washington's own historic Nuclear Reactor Building (More Hall Annex) in Seattle. It was slated for demolition this summer while it was also up for national register consideration. So, what happened?
MOREPosted Fri, Aug 29, 10 a.m. 2008
Everyone's trying to figure out whether or not Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's pick for vice presidential running mate, has experience. As far as election strategy goes, it doesn't matter that Palin has little experience. Sen. John Kerry had far more experience and was several times smarter than President Bush, but in the 2004 debates, Bush behaved like an idiot child kicking sand, Kerry responded with intelligent remarks, and the voters picked Bush anyway. With Palin, McCain is going after two things simultaneously: 1) the feminist-minded voters still pissed that Obama beat Clinton and 2) the independents who don't see themselves in either party.
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