News items for September 27, 2023

Wind power. Photo: @Andrew_Paul via Twenty20

• 1. Will clean-energy fund take Portland to its climate goal?

  The Portland City Council is expected to approve $750 million in climate-action projects from the massive Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund. It’s the largest-ever climate investment in the city’s history.

  The Oregonian Clean Energy, Climate Action

• 2. Tribes become stewards of parks and monuments

  The infrastructure and climate laws passed by Congress in recent years have increased funding for tribal forestry projects, accelerating the work. But federal efforts also have attracted criticism.

  Alaska Beacon National Parks, Tribes

• 3. Sound Transit charts an expanded paid parking program

  Sound Transit has outlined several alternatives to expand its parking management program with paid parking.

  The Urbanist Sound Transit

• 4. Achieving housing abundance near transit

  Local and state governments have a critical role to play in maximizing the links between transportation and housing investments.

  Terner Center for Housing and Innovation Abundant Housing, Transit

• 5. Starbucks aims to protect future of coffee with climate-resistant trees

  Another climate change problem is brewing: the future of coffee.

  The Seattle Times Climate Change, Coffee

• 6. Fewer young people take up the fishing trade

  As some fish populations dwindle and fewer people pursue the trade, fishers and conservation groups are actively working to bring in and retain the next generation of fishers through grants and training even as the industry continues to shrink in Alaska.

  Alaska Public Media Fisheries, Salmon

• 7. A new climate change report offers something unique: hope

  Here’s something you don’t hear much when it comes to climate change: hope. A new report says countries are setting records in deploying climate-friendly technologies.

  NPR Climate Change

• 8. The US needs minerals for green tech. Will Western mines have enough water?

  Much of the exploration and planned production of minerals for green technology is taking place in the arid American West, where water is increasingly scarce.

  OPB Green technology, Mining

• 9. Fire resistant, quake safe, climate friendly: Mass timber

  When Seattle’s eight-story Heartwood Apartments opens to residents this fall, it will be Washington’s tallest timber building and the first in the US permitted under a set of new construction codes that allow for wooden high-rises up to 18 stories.

  GeekWire Green Building

• 10. How climate change is muting fall colors

  Because of our changing climate and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, which cause extreme drought, blazing wildfires, and highly destructive floods, it’s been more challenging to predict the changing of the leaves.

  The Oregonian Climate Change

More News from September 27, 2023

• Beating the heat: Summer clean energy records worth celebrating

  Grid-level data shows that clean energy generation reached new heights across the United States this summer, but blind spots in the data hamper future planning.

  RMI Clean Energy