Update:  The O reports that high hopes were unfounded.  The story doesn’t even mention any limits on it, so probably the patch to bar the subsidy for ethanol from corn (which Kevin suggested had been added and had support from all sides) was not included.  So welcome to Iowa West folks, spending $5M a year [...]

There’s good news and bad news. Good news first?
For Owners or Prospective Electric Car Owners
“AeroVironment announced that it performed a fast charge demonstration of a lithium chemistry electric vehicle battery pack. The 35kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery pack, designed to allow the truck to travel more than 100 miles on a single charge, showed the capability of [...]

There’s an amazing study by researchers at Oregon State University (pdf file) that ought to be on every single desk in the Legislature and on every reporter’s computer as we get down to the short strokes in this session and the real heavy hits start getting laid down by lobbyists looking to deliver for their [...]

This announcement suggests that there was no business case for the ethanol plant in Klamath Falls and that the people of Oregon can be thankful that they are not going to be paying more in taxes to subsidize this plant even as the already critical water problems would have been made just that much worse. [...]

The popular Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid has been sold internationally since 2001. It’s innovative design has set the standard for hybrid technology, achieving a combined city/highway fuel economy of 55 miles per gallon, with an emissions rating of Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (AT-PZEV). The early success of the Prius has motivated other offerings [...]

Great article with huge implications for Oregon is HERE, pointed out by the nice people at the Sightline Institute in Seattle:
Some choice bits:
Taxes Are Sexy
So let’s stop being shy about saying what we want.
View full article and comments here http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/05/01/TaxesAreSexy/
By Zane Parker and Donna Morton
Published: May 1, 2006
…
First, like sex, taxes are hidden and mysterious.
True, [...]

James Woolsey, former US CIA boss, is spending his days trying to alert people to the problem our dependency on oil is creating. I attended an all-day workshop he ran called “Powershift 2020″ where different presenters proposed different things. Woolsey made clear his belief in biofuels contributing to the solution. So it’s [...]

The following was submitted by Chas Thomas of Ashland, OR:
I am not a blogger, I never have been.
But sometimes the events that I read about and the collective focus on some of these events seem to give more creditibility and often misguided direction to the discussions that take place.
Currently of course, the subject of global [...]

… is that we never learn anything from history. Particularly political history.
Environmental groups, the very people on the front lines of battling against the disasters caused by our perverse petroleum based ag system, have decided that rewarding the destruction of the land isn’t so bad, at least not if you can claim a green [...]

A message from the freepress campaign, working to keep the series of tubes a place where anyone can communicate. Once again, all categories checked, because keeping the Internet open is important to every issue:
Last week, a quarter-million people came out in force to tell the Federal Communications Commission to open the public airwaves [...]