Alan Durning’s Posts

• Going Postal

  365 days of junk mail 11

  Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago

  Ad mail isn't the biggest of Cascadia's challenges, but it ought to be among the easiest to solve. I was about to start calling direct mailers myself, demanding they take me off their lists. First, though, I conceived an experiment. I decided to stockpile every bit of advertising mail I received for 365 days. I wanted to see what Catalog Choice and DMA's program would do to stem the tide.

• More on Waxman-Markey

  Revised and updated: Things I love -- and hate -- about Waxman-Markey 4

  Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

  The original version of this post originally appeared June 11, 2009. It was based on the version of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act (H.R. 2454, or "Waxman-Markey") approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. By June 26, when the bill passed the House and headed to the Senate, it had grown by almost 480 pages. What changed?

• How do I love Waxman-Markey? Let me count the ways ...

  14 things I love -- and 6 things I hate -- about Waxman-Markey 3

  Posted 5 months, 1 week ago

  Under withering fire, Waxman-Markey’s cap-and-trade superstructure is still intact. If it passes in its current form, we can all be pleased, but we’ll have to hold our breath, hoping that the offset provisions work as intended. Waxman-Markey could be the most important piece of energy or environmental legislation in a generation. It’s also much-needed economic policy: clean energy can be the path out of recession.

• What’s in a green job?

  Green-Collar Jobs, Defined and Counted 0

  Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago

  “It’s hard to define what a green job actually is.”

  That’s Michael Myers, an analyst for the Oregon employment department, speaking recently in Florence, on the Oregon Coast, to an audience of anxious members of the local chamber of commerce. He was answering questions about where new employment opportunities will arise and explaining the challenge of counting new, green jobs.

  Across Oregon and Cascadia, many are hoping for, and working towards, a new, clean-energy economy that will usher in a healthy, lasting prosperity. There’s abundant… Read More

• Idaho's progressive utility rules

  Rewarding utilities for conservation success through 'decoupling' 1

  Posted 11 months ago

  

  Photo: thomas.merton.

  Utilities are among the few remaining large companies that are relatively solvent and profitable. Harnessing their might to offer retrofits for all would be a powerful step toward economic stimulus.

  But most utilities in Cascadia are conflicted about helping their customers save energy. On the one hand, they're legally obligated to do it. On the other hand, if they do it successfully, they don't make as much money.

  Resolving this conflict in favor of conservation requires an innovative form of utility regulation called… Read More

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Alan Durning’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  alternatives

  Great failings are great opportunities, as my closing said. I'm in a hurry right now, so just a few scattered points.

  Accidents, yes, but predictable. Sort of like car crashes -- no one intends one, but I can tell you how many Americans will die in them in 2005 (roughly 40,000) and not miss the mark by more than 10%. Oil spills are the same.

  Freight shipping benefits from few of the precautions applied to tankers: real-time monitoring, rapid response plans, fuel-storage regulations, etc.

  One problem is a Coast Guard that's somewhat in the pocket of the shipping industry. (I posted on that here: http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/the_us_coastal_.html.)

  And most of all: land-use planning, motor vehicle design, and transportation planning are not conducted as if run-off from land is the largest source of oil spills.

  Alan Durning (I blog at http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog)

  On Our daily oil spills posted 4 years, 11 months ago 3 Responses