Energy News Digest for March 18, 2008

All the links in today’s news digest lead to current stories. Please note that some media organizations update their web sites regularly, which may result in broken links in the future.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS (Details Below)

- Oregon – Portion of Bonneville Power Administration settlement could fund Ashland solar project
- Australia – Energy 'collapse' will force nuclear use, says exper
- Agency OKs the killing of sea lions at Bonneville Dam
- Idaho – Committee backs stiffer fines for fishery destruction
- Salem Statesman Journal Op/Ed – Driving the salmon to extinction
- San Jose Mercury News Editorial – Don't let salmon go the way of the California grizzly
- Daily Astorian Editorial – Decline of smelt fishery is bad for us
- Lake Chelan drawdown forecast revised
- Washington State Cracks Down On Private Dams
- Southeast U.S. drought eases, water wars persist
- California – Pair accused of stealing water meters
- Next big biofuel could be garbage
- Corporate Sponsorship for a Wind Farm
- Wal-Mart 'green store' cuts energy
- Legislature approves four earth-friendly bills
- Melting Pace of Glaciers Is Accelerating, Report Says
- In a Warmer Yellowstone Park, a Shifting Environmental Balance
- Tank vs. Hybrid – Is it possible that a Hummer's better for the environment than a Prius
- City of Seattle issues Request for Information for Fiber to the Premises build out.
- Illinois – Princeton set to roll out city Internet: Broadband Over Power Lines
- Data Centers To Fall Short In 2-5 Years, HP Predicts
- Using Water Cooling in the Data Center Brings Challenges
- Qwest to cut jobs on lower traditional phone use
- Qwest Lobbied on Internet Issues
- Charter cable company sued for back pay
- Time to recognize Web addiction as illness
- Supreme Court rules in favor of Washington state primary
- Shelton Police Officers Vote No Confidence In Administrator
- Weyerhaeuser mills, plants facilities sold to IP

These and links to more stories in today’s Energy News Digest

WORD OF THE DAY

Meticulous • \muh-TIK-yuh-lus\ • adjective – Marked by extreme or excessive care in the consideration or treatment of details

Slowly, but gently Joel placed his summer-blooming bulbs into the rich, dark earth; meticulously placing a generous helping of cayenne pepper around the precious little treasures. “Feast on THAT,” he muttered under his breath as a final benediction for the bulb and the voracious voles and pocket gophers that were secretly watching his ministrations from beneath the hydrangea bush.

WEATHER

Forecast for Mason County, Washington
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?site=sew&smap=1&textField1=47.21528&textField2=-123.09944

(NOTE: Some readers have noted that the NWS forecast has not been updated regularly. Apparently there is a refresh issue with the weather web site. If you visit and the forecast isn’t updated, press F5 or refresh the web page. That should take care of the issue)

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

Oregon – Portion of Bonneville Power Administration settlement could fund Ashland solar project (Ashland Tidings)
http://www.dailytidings.com/2008/0317/stories/0317_council.php

Australia – Energy 'collapse' will force nuclear use, says expert – A professor of geology has warned there will be no option other than embracing nuclear power in Australia when other energy sources collapse. (ABC Online)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2191969.htm

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Agency OKs the killing of sea lions at Bonneville Dam (Associated Press, via the Daily News, Longview)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/03/18/area_news/doc47df550833648373256252.txt

Idaho – Committee backs stiffer fines for fishery destruction (Associated Press, via the Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/391762.html

Salem Statesman Journal Op/Ed – Driving the salmon to extinction
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080318/BLOGS13/80318007/1046/OPINION

San Jose Mercury News Editorial – Don't let salmon go the way of the California grizzly
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8609711?source=rss

Daily Astorian Editorial – Decline of smelt fishery is bad for us: Tribes get ball rolling toward endangered listing
http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=392&ArticleID=49815&TM=59979.88

Lake Chelan drawdown forecast revised – Chelan County PUD: Less spring runoff means more water can remain in lake (Wenatchee World)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080317/NEWS04/545210983

Washington State Cracks Down On Private Dams (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/washington-state-cracks-down-private-dams/

Southeast U.S. drought eases, water wars persist (USA Today)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-03-17-water-wars_N.htm?csp=34

California – Pair accused of stealing water meters – One of the two suspects is a contractor hired to install devices in new homes
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_8610752?source=rss

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Next big biofuel could be garbage – A report suggests a homegrown Northwest industry built, in part, by converting waste (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1205720713233110.xml&coll=7

Corporate Sponsorship for a Wind Farm (NY Times – almost like naming rights)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/business/18steel.html?_r=1&ex=1363579200&en=07698a0e5d86ef5a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

CONSERVATION

Wal-Mart 'green store' cuts energy (Associated Press, via Yahoo! News)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080318/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_energy_saving_2

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Legislature approves four earth-friendly bills – The environmental community's four top priority bills survived the 2008 state legislative session, but two of them were watered down to achieve political support. (The Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/391908.html

Melting Pace of Glaciers Is Accelerating, Report Says (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/earth/18melt.html?ex=1363492800&en=e19b4b86c09cae9f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In a Warmer Yellowstone Park, a Shifting Environmental Balance (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18griz.html?ex=1363579200&en=1e833588cba857e7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Tank vs. Hybrid – Is it possible that a Hummer's better for the environment than a Prius is? (Slate Magazine)
http://www.slate.com/id/2186786/?from=rss

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

City of Seattle issues Request for Information for Fiber to the Premises build out.
http://www.seattle.gov/broadband/

Illinois – Princeton set to roll out city Internet: Broadband Over Power Lines service uses municipally owned electric lines (Princeton Journal Star)
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/031608/REG_BG2B394O.053.php

Data Centers To Fall Short In 2-5 Years, HP Predicts “…they would not be able to find the electricity, cooling capacity, space or budgets they need to continue to expand their data centers…”. (InformationWeek)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080318/tc_cmp/206904227

Using Water Cooling in the Data Center Brings Challenges – As racks get filled with high density equipment, facility executives are examining the impacts of bringing water into the data center (FacilitiesNet via Energy Ideas Clearinghouse)
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=8227&keywords=data%20centers

Qwest to cut jobs on lower traditional phone use (Reuters)
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080318/qwest_jobs.html?.v=1

Qwest Lobbied on Internet Issues – Qwest Communications Spent Nearly $3.4 Million to Lobby Government (Associated Press, via Yahoo! Finance)
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080317/qwest_communications_lobbying.html?.v=1

Charter cable company sued for back pay (Associated Press, via the Tri-City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/business/business_wire/story/120125.html

Time to recognize Web addiction as illness “…about 86 per cent of Internet addicts have some other form of mental illness …” (Victoria Times-Colonist)
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=b436303d-e3ba-46a5-86ae-46ef80db6248&k=25569

GENERAL NEWS

Supreme Court rules in favor of Washington state primary (News Tribune, Tacoma)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/breaking/story/311970.html

Supreme Court rules in favor of Washington state primary (Associated Press, via the Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004289949_webprimary18m.html?syndication=rss

POLICE OFFICERS VOTE NO CONFIDENCE IN ADMINISTRATOR – The Shelton Police Officers Guild has voted “no confidence” in City Administrator Dave O'Leary and asked for his resignation. Detective Harry Heldreth spoke on behave of the guild during Monday's Shelton City Commission meeting telling the Commissioners their vote came on the heals of O'Leary asking for over $300,000 be cut from the Police Department's budget for next year. In his prepared statement, the Detective asked the Commission to hold O'Leary accountable for the City's current financial situation and limited revenues. According to O'Leary, the City's revenues have been diminishing for a variety of reasons including voter approved tax limiting measures such as Initiative 695 and Initiative 747, and increasing costs for fuel and medical insurance. O'Leary says officials are looking to cut about $600,000 from the 2009 budget and working on it now will help limit the impacts. O'Leary, City Commissioner of Finance Mike Byrne and the City's Finance Director Cathy Beierle will be meeting with department heads this week to discuss what kinds of cuts are needed. O'Leary plans on meeting with the guild and discussing the cuts further as the $300,000 is a worse case scenario. Those meetings will lead to a plan for the City that will be presented to the Shelton City Commission at a retreat on March 26th. (KMAS Radio, Shelton)

Weyerhaeuser mills, plants facilities sold to IP (Examiner.com – Includes plants in Olympia, Moses Lake, Yakima & Bellevue)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1283870~Weyerhaeuser_mills__plants_facilities_sold_to_IP.html

DIVERSIONS

Biologist Releases Fish In 1983, Catches It 25 Years Later
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/15620076/detail.html

Mouse Holds Plane Hostage For 5 Hours
http://www.kirotv.com/news/15586864/detail.html

Cities Smile Atop Best Teeth Lists (Seattle was 27. What’s with Spokane and Portland? 98 and 94 respectively)
http://www.kirotv.com/health/15594577/detail.html

The Claim: Cold Water Boils More Quickly than Hot Water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/health/18real.html?ex=1363579200&en=4e9291be6dd92c68&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss