Energy News Digest for October 2, 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)

- Residential Exchange – Puget Sound Energy trying to lower electric rates
- Rate cut possible for Puget Sound Energy customers
- CALIFORNIA – Electricity from Pacific Gas & Electric to cost 6% more
- Jefferson County Public Power – New cash, new vote proposal in campaign
- Policy group's report backs Jefferson County power by PSE over PUDs
- Public Power Week Next Week
- MONTANA – Flathead Co-op puts $3.5 mil in rebates for customers
- IDAHO – Salmon River Electric Cooperative membership tops 2,000
- Enron creditors to receive $900 million distribution
- Energy Pulse Commentary – Another Inconvenient Truth: The Need for Coal
- FISHING: Portion of Yakima River closed to salmon fishing
- Cowlitz River is the place to go for Coho
- Orcas Move South Into Kitsap Waters
- Documentary looks at effects of Snake River dam removal
- Feds will review protected status of seabirds
- Puget Sound agency considers array of taxes to restore Puget Sound's environmental health
- Regulating Interstate Water Pollution
- Columbian Editorial – Septic Assistance: Poorly functioning septic tanks pose a major threat to the quality of groundwater and underground aquifers
- Solar tour showcases renewable energy resources in Clark County
- Seattle Steam Building Biomass Facility
- Great Lakes show great promise for wind energy, researchers find
- UNITED KINGDOM – Study eases fear about wind farm threat to birds
- CFLs: Are We Trading Energy Conservation For Toxic Mercury Emissions?
- Everett Home Show Goes Green!
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District rates customers on energy consumption
- High mountain meadows at Rainier melt away
- British Columbia’s glaciers steadily disappearing
- Report: 4.2 million new 'green' jobs possible
- Google unveils $4.4 trillion plan to reduce fossil-fuel dependence
- The 'Clean Coal' Myth
- Costco's data center future uncertain in Grant County
- Google Data Centers More Efficient Than the Industry Average
- Powell, Wyoming: Population 5,500, Fiber Fed
- Outsourcing aids many data thefts, Verizon says
- Winter May Bring Heavy Rain, Strong Winds, Lowland Snow
- Huh? Forecasters see chance of warmer, drier winter
- This winter, expect ... absolutely anything
- Indian Tribes’ Sales of Untaxed Cigarettes Getting More Scrutiny
- Tacoma City Council explores user-fee system for streets
- Spokane, Wash., paper makes cuts, editor resigns
- Political vandals tearing up campaign signs in Western Washington
- WaMu CEO Fishman won't accept any severance pay

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Bilious • \BILL-yus\ • adjective – 1a: of or relating to bile b : marked by or suffering from liver dysfunction and especially excessive secretion of bile *2: of or indicative of a peevish ill-natured disposition 3: sickeningly unpleasant

Barty instinctively shrank away from the close-talking energy trader at the party celebrating his new wind farm. “Your little pinwheels won’t ever compete with my nuke plant,” growled his bilious guest.

WEATHER
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?textField1=47.213805&textField2=-123.113412&site=all&smap=1&searchresult=Shelton%2C%20WA%2C%20USA

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

Residential Exchange – Puget Sound Energy trying to lower electric rates (KING-TV, Seattle)
http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_100108BUB_pse_rate_reduction_TP.cf072fc5.html

Rate cut possible for Puget Sound Energy customers (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA – Public power preference customer are still waiting for their thank you note….)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/497429.html

CALIFORNIA – Electricity from Pacific Gas & Electric to cost 6% more (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/02/BUEC139ONR.DTL&feed=rss.business

Jefferson County Public Power Measure – New cash, new vote proposal in Prop. 1 campaign (Port Townsend Leader, WA)
http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=21956&TM=51790.86

Policy group's report backs Jefferson County power by PSE over PUDs (Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, WA)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20081002/NEWS/810020309

Public Power Week Next Week (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/5185/reftab/1896/Default.aspx

MONTANA – Flathead Co-op puts $3.5 mil in rebates for customers (KAJ-TV, Kalispell, MT)http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=9109349

IDAHO – Salmon River Electric Cooperative membership tops 2,000 (The Challis Messenger, ID)
http://www.challismessenger.com/index.php?accnum=story-11-20081002

Enron creditors to receive $900 million distribution (Portland Business Journal, OR)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/09/29/daily38.html?ana=from_rss

Energy Pulse Commentary – Another Inconvenient Truth: The Need for Coal
http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=1839

FISH & WILDLIFE

FISHING: Portion of Yakima River closed to salmon fishing (Tri-City Herald, WA)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/945/story/337015.html

Cowlitz River is the place to go for Coho (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/sports/story/604526.html

Orcas Move South Into Kitsap Waters (Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, WA)
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/oct/01/orcas-move-south-into-kitsap-waters/?partner=RSS

Documentary looks at effects of Snake River dams removal (Tri-City Herald)
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kennewick_pasco_richland/story/337357.html

Feds will review protected status of seabirds (Associated Press)
http://www.examiner.com/a-1616640~Feds_will_review_protected_status_of_seabirds.html?cid=rss-Washington_Headlines

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Puget Sound agency considers array of taxes to restore Puget Sound's environmental health (KOMO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/30073154.html

Regulating Interstate Water Pollution (KUOW Radio, Seattle)
http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=15954

Columbian Editorial – Septic Assistance: Poorly functioning septic tanks pose a major threat to the quality of groundwater and underground aquifers (Vancouver, WA)
http://columbian.com/article/20081002/OPINION02/810019941/-1/opinion

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Energy Adviser: Solar tour showcases renewable energy resources in Clark County (The Columbian, Vancouver, WA)
http://www.columbian.com/article/20081002/LIVING/810019956

Seattle Steam Building Biomass Facility (Renewable Energy World Online)
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53731&src=rss

Great Lakes show great promise for wind energy, researchers find (Detroit Free Press, MI)
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081001/BUSINESS06/81001057

UNITED KINGDOM – Study eases fear about wind farm threat to birds (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4900A120081001?sp=true

CONSERVATION

Compact Fluorescent Lighting: Are We Trading Energy Conservation For Toxic Mercury Emissions? (Science Daily)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081001093454.htm

Everett Home Show Goes Green! (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/greenhuman/archives/150173.asp

CALIFORNIA – Sacramento Municipal Utility District rates customers on energy consumption (Sacramento Bee, CA)
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/1267187.html

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

High mountain meadows at Rainier melt away (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/603990.html

British Columbia’s glaciers steadily disappearing (Straight.com, Vancouver, BC)
http://www.straight.com/article-164354/bc-glaciers-steadily-disappearing

Report: 4.2 million new 'green' jobs possible (Associated Press)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ipuPwK5YeRDA9nnfxKFH15moXmSgD93HTSM02

Google unveils $4.4 trillion plan to reduce fossil-fuel dependence (Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/09/29/daily64.html?ana=from_rss

The 'Clean Coal' Myth (Newsweek/Washington Post)
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/energywire/2008/10/the_clean_coal_myth.html

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Costco's data center future uncertain in Grant County – Dark fiber halt impacted decisions by Amazon, Oracle (Columbia Basin Herald, Moses Lake, WA)
http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/articles/2008/10/01/news/news02.txt

Google Data Centers More Efficient Than the Industry Average (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/01/google-data-centers-more-efficient-than-the-industry-average/

Powell, Wyoming: Population 5,500, Fiber Fed – Municipal broadband project getting lit (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Powell-Wyoming-Population-5500-Fiber-Fed-98110?nocomment=1

Outsourcing aids many data thefts, Verizon says (Associated Press)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10616778?source=rss

GENERAL NEWS

Winter May Bring Heavy Rain, Strong Winds, Lowland Snow (KIRO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.kirotv.com/weather/17599914/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=news

Huh? Forecasters see chance of warmer, drier winter (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/localnewsfeed/story/604343.html

This winter, expect ... absolutely anything (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/381402_weather02.html?source=rss

Indian Tribes’ Sales of Untaxed Cigarettes Getting More Scrutiny (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/nyregion/02smoke.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Tacoma City Council explores user-fee system for streets – A new utility might be what it takes to transform Tacoma’s streets from a mess to a source of pride. (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/government/story/490383.html

Spokane, Wash., paper makes cuts, editor resigns (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008221002_apwaspokesmancuts1stldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

Political vandals tearing up campaign signs in Western Washington (KING-TV, Seattle)
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_100108WAB_political_vandals_LJ.ce8cc18f.html

WaMu CEO Fishman won't accept any severance pay (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008221171_fishman02.html

DIVERSIONS

Lost Dog Finds Fla. Travel Agency, And A Way Home
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/17599000/detail.html

Woman In Cow Suit Moo-ves Police To Arrest
http://www.kirotv.com/irresistible/17598558/detail.html

Chicken droppings cheap fertilizer for U.S. wheat
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081002/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_usa_fertilizer_poultry;_ylt=AsBAh1BGNvm9cnjb7c9hX7rtiBIF

Bangkok governor hopeful punches TV host - Claims he was provoked by tough questions during a live interview.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081002/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_thailand_election_fight;_ylt=Asib9oC.IK9RXYLUVHqEy_XtiBIF