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Gas prices have edged up over the past month, passing $2 a gallon in Seattle earlier this week as an east-coast cold snap pushed up crude oil prices. But no matter how high the market price goes, gas (and driving in general) is still too cheap. See, for example, the chart below, from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (from page 6-4 of this pdf).  Much of the cost of driving...

Is lax environmental regulation bad for the economy? Very likely, suggests an article in today’s Christian Science Monitor. American businesses were once world leaders in wind power, solar panel manufacturing, and coal power plant pollution scrubbers. But decades of regulatory laxness has relegated alternative energy and pollution-reduction to the back burner. Now, in order to diversify its energy portfolio or reduce air pollution, the US is forced to play catch-up....

This afternoon, Ottawa unveiled its budget. It’s got several line items of note, including $5 billion for cities through an agreement to hand over some of the proceeds of federal gasoline taxes. It’s also got $5 billion over five years for environmental programs, with an emphasis on complying with Kyoto. Creative components include a fund to help catalyze entrepreneurial greenhouse-gas reduction schemes. To me, though, the most exciting announcement is...

If you read nothing else in the news today, read Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column “No Mullah Left Behind.” The crux: "By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit’s automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is – as...

On Wednesday, February 16, the Kyoto Protocol will come into effect, mandating participating nations to reduce their emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Canada has ratified Kyoto. The United States has not. Have you? Not literally, of course. Individuals can’t sign international treaties. They can, however, pledge to match its goals (summarized by World Resources Institute): a reduction of emissions in the United States to 7 percent below-and in Canada to...

Eat Here, a new book by Worldwatch Institute’s Brian Halweil, takes a close look at a topic that is close to many northwesterners’ hearts and taste buds: the burgeoning local food movement. The book is a bit too data-packed-not quite accessible enough for a general audience-but it does have some gems in it, including a series of case studies of communities, businesses, and consumers around the world who are working...

Over the last two days, a question has circulated around our office, asked by green architect and Sightline friend Rob Harrison.  His quandary:  which car should he buy to replace an automobile that was totalled? He’s narrowed his choices to 4—a super-efficient Toyota Prius, a VW or Subaru station wagon, or a 1992 Honda Accord—and is weighing factors including price, reliability, safety, utility, and environmental performance. I can’t claim any...

One important but little discussed difference between the Canadian and American parts of Cascadia is their different philosophies about trash. This difference has emerged in the last decade. And, sad to say, the Canadians have left the Americans in the dustbin, so to speak. British Columbia has adopted a far less regulatory, government-centered approach, even while they’ve made dramatic gains in waste reduction and recycling. I’m talking here about “product...

As you may have noticed, I’m no knee-jerk promoter of organic farming (I’ll explain why, in a moment), but organic strawberries are worth the extra dollar. The reason is methyl bromide, a potent stratospheric ozone destroyer, which is applied most heavily to strawberry fields. Its use is actually increasing in the US, because of a loophole in the Montreal Protocol, as the New York Timesreported Friday. The problem with organic...

This piece by John Tierney in the New York Times Magazine is wrong in many ways, so it’s probably important to point out what’s right about it. To summarize the article (we read, so you don’t have to!): Cars are great, high-tech roads are cool, people who don’t like new roads are condescending nanny-statists who oppose consumer choice, public transit is too expensive, and the only real solutions to traffic...