News items for August 3, 2022

Green collar jobs in the clean energy economy. Installing solar panels. Photo: @mama.mian via Twenty20.

• 1. 41 large polluters to get free passes in WA’s carbon trading

  Washington is required by law to eliminate or offset all of its greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. But generous exemptions for more than 40 of the state’s biggest polluters in a forthcoming carbon market could push that goal beyond reach.

  The Seattle Times Cap-and-Trade, Carbon offsets

• 2. Will BC let Mount Polley Mine keep pumping waste?

  Eight years after a tailings pond disaster, critics say Imperial Metals should have come up with better waste plan by now and warn of risks.

  The Tyee Mining, Toxic Waste

• 3. Multnomah County voters could decide to extend voting rights to noncitizens

  Multnomah County voters could decide in November whether to make the county the first in Oregon to extend voting rights to residents who aren’t US citizens.

  The Oregonian Voting Rights

• 4. AK’s Willow Project promises huge amounts of oil, and environmental impacts

  The largest proposed oil and gas project on US federal lands moved one step closer to approval in early July. Residents in nearby Nuiqsut are worried.

  High Country News Big Oil, drilling

• 5. Research tracks dramatic rise in OR’s poor air quality from wildfire smoke

  A study by Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, which operates air-monitoring stations around the state, found that central and southern Oregon cities such as Bend, Klamath Falls and Medford neared or broke records in 2021 for the number of smoky days considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups.

  The Oregonian air quality, Wildfires

• 6. BC boosts electric-vehicle rebate

  The BC government says it is boosting its rebate program for electric vehicles to $4,000 to make them more affordable and accessible.

  CBC Electric Vehicles

• 7. How climate change is muting nature’s symphony

  From warbling loons to chirping toads, rising temperatures threaten some of the Earth’s most iconic sounds.

  Grist Climate Change, Wildlife

• 8. Amazon’s carbon footprint grew again in 2021

  Amazon’s carbon footprint grew 18% last year, the third straight year of increased emissions since the company started sharing the information.

  GeekWire Carbon Footprint

• 9. Study: Friendships between rich and poor reduces poverty

  For poor children, living in an area where people have more friendships that cut across class lines significantly increases how much they earn in adulthood, the new research found.

  The New York Times Poverty

• 10. Saying goodbye to the dangerous, alluring scent of gasoline

  Electric vehicle makers are grappling with our olfactory attachment to the fuel.

  Grist Gasoline

More News from August 3, 2022

• Who donates to Alaska’s campaigns and why?

  When it comes to who’s giving money to Alaska’s political candidates there’s plenty of interesting questions.

  Juneau Empire Campaign Finance

• CA not counting methane leaks from idle oil wells

  California claims to know how much climate-warming gas is going into the air from within its borders. Yet officials with the agency responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions say they don’t include methane that leaks from these idle wells.

  Los Angeles Times Greenhouse Gases, Methane leaks