News items for September 27, 2023

Wind power. Photo: @Andrew_Paul via Twenty20
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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.
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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.
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3. Sound Transit charts an expanded paid parking program
Sound Transit has outlined several alternatives to expand its parking management program with paid parking.
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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.
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5. Starbucks aims to protect future of coffee with climate-resistant trees
Another climate change problem is brewing: the future of coffee.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
More News from September 27, 2023
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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.