News items for September 24, 2020

Triangle by Shelah used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

• 1. California is ready to pull the plug on gas vehicles

  California will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks in 15 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, establishing a timeline in the nation’s most populous state that could force U.S. automakers to shift their zero-emission efforts into overdrive.

  Seattle Times Climate Action

• 2. Kalama methanol “benefits” assume catastrophic climate failure

  Why do some people claim the project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

  Sightline Institute Kalama Methanol Refinery

• 3. A post-Ruth Bader Ginsburg court could be one more climate obstacle

  The prospect of a shift on the Supreme Court is a bracing reminder that we need strategies for rapid and sweeping change that don’t rely entirely on congressional action.

  New Yorker US Supreme Court

• 4. New WA law helps Native voters this election. Is it enough?

  Washington lawmakers passed the Native American Voting Rights Act last year, but they couldn’t have expected the pandemic and wildfires to come.

  Crosscut Native Americans

• 5. US economy lost $16 trillion because of racism

  Not acting to reverse discriminatory practices will continue to exact a cost.

  NPR Racism

• 6. Views: Black voters know climate justice is racial justice

  When climate catastrophes strike in the United States, the nation’s Black people are hit the hardest—while lacking the resources and social mobility to confront them.

  Yes! Magazine racial justice

• 7. Portland officials boost e-bikes as leaders weigh in on congestion pricing

  Even before the Covid-19 pandemic took a cleaver to municipal budgets and dramatically impacted mobility patterns regionwide, congestion pricing was already a hot topic.

  Bike Portland congestion pricing

• 8. Canada’s transit is in grave danger of falling into a death spiral

  No issue affects mobility, equity, and climate change more than public transit, which is essential to a green and socially inclusive recovery.

  Policy Options Transportation

• 9. Can Amazon really make it easier to identify green products?

  The new “Climate Pledge Friendly” labeling represents the latest attempt by retailers to give shoppers a way to browse products based on their environmental and social impacts. But it is far from a clear picture.

  Seattle Times Consumerism

• 10. “Aggressive efforts” needed to prevent spread of Asian giant hornet in Washington

  The Pacific Northwest could be the perfect habitat for the Asian giant hornet — known to some researchers as the “murder hornet” — which could decimate honeybee populations throughout Western Washington and down the coast if “aggressive efforts” aren’t taken to quickly eradicate it.

  Seattle Times Invasive Species

More News from September 24, 2020

• The path to good local zoning reform is state and federal zoning reform

  Portland’s ‘more radical’ reform happened because a ‘less radical’ state law had forced a debate.

  Sightline Institute Zoning

• We know climate change set the conditions for Oregon fires.

  The extreme weather conditions that led into the Labor Day weekend wildfires were unlike anything Oregon’s seen before but could become more frequent.

  Oregon Public Broadcasting Wildfires