News items for April 19, 2019

Space Needle with skyline and Mount Rainier at sunset, 2000 by Seattle Municipal Archives used under CC BY 2.0

• 1. Renter boom: Apartments filling up faster in Seattle than anywhere in the U.S.

  The Seattle area is filling up new apartments faster than any region in the country, suggesting demand for housing is starting to catch up with the record construction boom—not a great sign for tenants hoping landlords get desperate and drop rents.

  Seattle Times Housing Shortage

• 2. Bills to address missing Native Americans advances in MT

  Several pieces of legislation intended to combat the crisis of missing Native Americans in Montana passed key legislative votes Thursday, with two bills now headed to the governor’s desk.

  Missoulian First Nations

• 3. WA’s progressive ADU bill died this week

  But the debate over the state’s role in tackling the housing crisis has only just begun.

  Sightline Institute ADU, Affordable housing

• 4. First Nations: Trans Mountain consultation approach ‘fatally flawed’

  Even if the time period for consultation with Indigenous groups over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline is extended by a few weeks, “it still doesn’t make up for the approach and the flawed way the consultations are being done,” says one B.C. First Nations leader.

  CBC British Columbia Trans Mountain Pipeline

• 5. Ridership jumped 400% when Seattle protected a bike lane

  Bike ridership jumped more than 413% after Seattle upgraded a key corridor from a mere painted bike lane into a beefier protected version, a city official revealed on Thursday.

  Streetsblog Protected Bike Lanes

• 6. How Canada’s law for protecting at-risk species is failing

  It can take years for declining plant and animal species to make it on to Canada’s Species At Risk registry—where they often languish for several more as governments weigh political considerations and commercial interests against the brute reality of extinction

  The Narwhal Endangered species

• 7. A closer look at WA’s new 100% clean electricity bill

  The trend of states targeting 100% clean electricity has gone viral.

  Vox Clean Energy

• 8. Electric cars could be as affordable as conventional vehicles in 3 years

  Electric vehicles will be cost-competitive with combustion-engine cars by 2022, according to a new report by transportation analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

  Yale Environment 360 Electric Vehicles

• 9. Chevron, Exxon say they can turn around the failed fracking industry

  After a decade of the American fracking industry burning through hundreds of billions of dollars more than it earned, this industry previously dominated by shale drilling specialists is entering a new phase. Big Oil companies are now investing heavily in fracked oil and gas operations.

  DeSmogBlog Fracking

• 10. Vancouver to consider 6 ‘big moves’ in response to climate emergency

  The plan would work out to 90,000 tons a year in a reduction of carbon, compared to the 19,000 tons a year the city has reduced between 2007 and 2017.

  Vancouver Sun Climate Action

More News from April 19, 2019

• Environmental groups file another suit over forest grazing in OR

  Environmentalists are continuing their legal battle against grazing in a national forest in south central Oregon with a lawsuit over federal management of a 170,000-acre livestock allotment.

  Corvallis Gazette-Times Forest

• What’s your carbon budget? You probably don’t want to know.

  But if politicians ran governments on them, the planet might have a fighting chance.

  The Tyee Carbon emissions

• Pollution prompts WA to restrict shellfish harvesting

  State officials have closed part of Port Susan to commercial shellfish harvesting after an annual water-quality evaluation turned up high levels of pollution.

  Everett Herald Shellfish

• A doubly green deal? Clean energy jobs also pay well

  Discussions of a clean energy transition are often clouded by fears of job loss. But new analysis from the Brookings Institution suggests that such a transition could come with tangible economic benefits.

  Christian Science Monitor Clean Energy, Green Jobs

• Here’s how we make southwest Portland better for biking and walking

  If you care about making streets in southwest Portland better for biking and walking, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has just done you a huge favor.

  Bike Portland Biking

• Trans Mountain pipeline decision extended to consult with indigenous groups

  The federal government is putting off plans to pass judgment on the reconsidered Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal for nearly a month in order to finish its consultations with Indigenous groups.

  Victoria Times Colonist First Nations, Trans Mountain Pipeline