News items for October 2, 2024

• 1. The state of parking mandates in WA

  Minimum parking requirements are paving over Washington, regardless of how much parking residents or businesses actually need.

  Sightline Institute

• 2. WA’s most parking-burdened towns and cities

  A new Sightline report details the arcane, arbitrary, and pernicious rules blocking homes and businesses across the state.

  Sightline Institute

• 3. Week Without Driving challenges driver-centric culture in Portland

  The fourth annual Week Without Driving challenge kicked off on Monday. The event was created in 2021 by Disability Rights Washington to highlight the barriers nondrivers face, including those who have disabilities, with using public transit or sidewalks and bike lanes to get around.

  OPB

• 4. A guide to AK’s November 2024 election

  On November 5, 2024, Alaskans will use ranked choice voting in their general election. We’ve put together answers to the top questions we’ve been hearing about Alaska’s ranked choice election.

  Sightline Institute

• 5. Opinion: A short history lesson on ranked-choice voting in ID

  It helps to view the progression of Idaho’s governing structure from statehood in 1890 to the present, writes guest columnist Jim Jones.

  Idaho Capital Sun

• 6. MT tribal members sue for satellite voting locations

  Fort Peck tribal members are suing Valley County seeking satellite voting locations, arguing that Indigenous voters have poor access to the polls.

  Montana Free Press

• 7. Canadians are still paying for Trudeau’s Trans Mountain Pipeline

  Below-market pipeline tolls amount to an extra $18.8 billion subsidy to the oil industry, report finds.

  DeSmogBlog

• 8. Yakima Nation faces hurdles for DOE solar energy funds

  Washington’s Yakama Nation received both a grant and a $100 million federal loan to build a large solar project. Held up by a series of bureaucratic hurdles, the funding could expire before the government lets the tribal nation access the money.

  OPB

• 9. Gas prices or pollution? The high-dollar fight over WA cap and trade

  The battle over Washington’s landmark climate law is growing more expensive by the day, and the fight over an initiative that would repeal it is one of the priciest statewide races this year.

  The Seattle Times

• 10. Who will care for Americans left behind by climate migration?

  As people move away from flooding and heat, new research suggests that those who remain will be older, poorer and more vulnerable.

  ProPublica

More News from October 2, 2024

• Solar-powered longhouses, low-impact hydro for Canada’s Indigenous communities

  The Catalyst program is run by non-profit Indigenous Clean Energy and aims to help accelerate and support First Nations, Inuit and Métis participation in clean energy projects from coast to coast to coast in Canada.

  CBC

• Climate Act boosts Quinault’s climate change fight

  Thanks to funding made possible by the state’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA), the Quinault Indian Nation’s mission to face climate change head-on has gained more momentum. Quinault recently announced that it will use $13 million in funding toward moving the villages of Taholah and Queets out of the Olympic Coast’s flooding and tsunami zone.

  Northwest Treaty Tribes

• Seattle goes on a bridge repair binge before tax levy goes to voters

  As voters consider a bigger property tax levy for Seattle transportation, the city reports that a 2015-24 levy paid for part or all of 16 bridge strengthening and three new bridges.

  The Seattle Times

• Opinion: For reconciliation to work, housing is the way forward

  The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is more than just a day of reflection, it is a day to heed urgent calls to action to support Indigenous Peoples’ well-being.

  The Tyee

• Climate change is destroying US homes. Who has to move?

  After more than five years of reporting on the ways that the U.S. is adapting to climate change, I’ve encountered dozens of instances of this dilemma, where a government’s attempts to implement a “managed retreat” from a vulnerable area collide with the private property rights, as well as the deep, human attachments, of homeowners who don’t want to move.

  Grist

• Why are so many companies retreating from their climate targets?

  In what is becoming something of a trend, a number of companies are abandoning their carbon emissions targets, in a year scientists have determined is likely to end up being the hottest on record.

  CBC