Amanda Fritz did me the honor of picking up and blogging about the Oregon State biofuels study that I posted here; checking out her blog, I find this interesting post, which deserves to be much more widely read.
Not that I think keeping freeways flowing is Job 1, but because these suggestions all work to promote [...]

Washington County Peak Oil — new relocalization group. Get involved.

The Oregon Conservation Network (and, one hopes, all other environmental groups in Oregon) responds to the bizarre last-minute raid on the Energy Trust in an amendment to SB 994. (Their message after the link below.)
I join OCN in asking that you contact Governor K. and tell him to veto the funding raid. My [...]

The Oregonian has a story today about an infuriating and irrational decision by some legislators to plunder the state Energy Trust in order to pay off some of OMSI’s debt, a debt that was incurred before the Energy Trust fund was established.
The Oregonian story says that budget writers couldn’t find more than $1 million in [...]

Oregon’s target of 75% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a step in the right direction. The principal problem is that it falls short of what the best science is saying we have to do (80%) to have better than a 50-50 chance of preventing dangerous climate destabilization.

Urban planners and electrical engineers will be the architects of future transportation systems that reduce dependence on autos and fossil fuel. The emphasis will be on livable communities with mixed-use zoning and safe pedestrian and bicycle routes. Like the long-standing communities in Europe, local diversity will reduce the need for extensive travel. All alternative (not [...]

From Business Week
“The U.S. is completely unprepared for peak oil, as it’s called, and the wrenching adjustments it would entail could easily accelerate global warming as nations turn to coal (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/19/07, “Rx for Earth: Sooner Not Later”). Moreover, regardless of the implications for climate change, peak oil represents a mortal threat to the [...]

A concise article on “The Great Biofuels Hoax.”
Includes the memorable (and all-too accurate) phrase “bait and switchgrass” used to describe the biofuels boosters’ tactic of agreeing that, while biofuels aren’t actually useful now, they’re sure to be someday when cellulosic ethanol made from things like switchgrass come on stream.

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In the words of French writer Joseph Joubert, “It is better to debate a question without settling it, than to settle a question without debating it.”
On Friday the Oregon legislature decided to settle the question of comprehensive health care reform without debating it. We were informed this afternoon by Representative Mary Nolan that the Democratic [...]