Tale of Two Cities: Ferndale welcomes Big Coal
Cherry Point has pumped millions into Ferndale, where residents and town officials are (mostly) bullish on coal.
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ALL MEMBERS »Cherry Point has pumped millions into Ferndale, where residents and town officials are (mostly) bullish on coal.
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Guest Opinion: Armen Stepanian, Fremont legend and the father of Seattle's ubiquitous recycling program, watched this year as the city marked its 25th anniversary. A little too quietly.
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The withdrawal of Kinder Morgan from plans for coal exports from the Port of St. Helens still leaves other efforts in the works. And the company is hunting for other coal port sites.
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The journalist and author on the river and the writing.
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The Earth Day founder and Bullitt Foundation president isn't just a voracious reader of environmental non-fiction. He's also an adventurer in the world of eye-opening fiction and poetic justice.
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Environmentalists have a lobby too. How are they faring in the budget wars?
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Our new streetlights save money and energy, help police and give Seattle early-adopter bragging rights. But do they have to be so glaring?
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A new biography of Gov. Spellman, the last Republican governor in the state, tells how he resisted enormous economic and political pressure for an oil pipeline under Puget Sound. Plus, another threat days after his epic pipeline decision.
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A new biography details a remarkable story of how plans to put an oil pipeline under Puget Sound ran into an unlikely antagonist, a mild-mannered Republican determined to follow the law and protect the Sound.
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The governor goes to the Legislature to push personally for a broad look at how to battle global warming.
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A lawmaker is working to make sure that Washington has the same kind of taxes on natural gas drilling that most other states impose.
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In gray Western Washington, good old neighborhood community-building is driving a solar panel spike.
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A Senate committee chairman concedes that Gov. Inslee would veto one of his ideas. But the GOP hopes to build momentum to roll back a voter-approved initiative's requirements eventually.
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The new owner of The Herald and Seattle Weekly is point man for a controversial refinery at Kitimat, B.C, tapping Alberta oil sands. David Black makes his case, and talks about his Seattle publishing plans.
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New poll results show that Washingtonians largely support proposed coal terminals along the state's coastline. In true measured Northwest form though, they want to know more.
READ MORE | 1 COMMENTSThe latest from news outlets and blogs around the Northwest and beyond, chosen by Crosscut editors.
Southern California Edison said it is abandoning efforts to restart the San Onofre reactors, which closed last year because of problems that led to the release of a small amount of radioactive steam.
One site under consideration is Everett. The Snohomish County PUD has been a leader in tidal-power experiments here.
"Tar-sands oil is not really oil, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. It starts out as semi-solid and has to be either mined or literally melted out of the ground. In either case, the process requires energy, which is provided by burning fossil fuels. The result is that, for every barrel of tar-sands oil that’s extracted, significantly more carbon dioxide enters the air than for every barrel of ordinary crude—between twelve and twenty-three per cent more."
"The phenomenon is catching the attention of environmental groups, already intent on stopping train-fed U.S. coal exports to Asia from Northwest ports. As with coal, the most likely route for loaded oil trains is the Columbia River Gorge."
"Done mostly indoors in Washington, pot production often uses hospital-intensity lamps, air conditioning, dehumidifiers, fans and carbon-dioxide generators to stimulate plants and boost their potency. The power-hungry crops rival data centers or server farms in intense use of electricity, according to a peer-reviewed study last year in the journal Energy Policy. One kilo, or 2.2 pounds, of pot grown indoors, the study says, leaves a carbon footprint equivalent to driving across the country seven times."