Energy News Digest for November 20, 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)

- Strong Winds in Cascade Foothills Drop Trees, Cut Power Lines
- Jefferson PUD urged to move quickly on power franchise
- Wenatchee - First Alcoa workers notified of layoffs
- Council Hears Competing Sides In Proposed Alcoa Power Sale
- Seattle P-I Editorial - Northwest needs: Pay attention to us
- Opponents Say Federal Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Would Pollute
- Some City of Tacoma workers underpaid, study says
- PG&E starts Colusa natural gas power plant construction
- Get those ugly chum while you can
- Most of California’s native game fish face extinction
- Changes to Species Act Are Said to Be Near
- Sea lion numbers a mixed bag
- Panel Approves First Rules for Organic Farmed Fish
- ComEd's Lake Michigan Bird-Friendly Efforts Take Flight
- Is the Northwest Running Out of Water?
- Rainwater Turns To Noxious Soup, Flows to Sound
- Crews racing to repair 30 Western Washington levees
- Seattle raises $205 million through water bonds
- Group that backs public artesian well in Olympia to disband
- Clean Energy Confronts Messy Reality
- Ocean water could bring limitless clean energy
- Wal-Mart buys wind energy supply, with a catch
- WAPA buying wind power from Basin
- Car Charging - Nissan drives a deal with Oregon
- California begins crackdown on newly illegal chimney fires
- NY Times Op/Ed - What’s the Point of Daylight Time?
- Measuring the National Carbon Footprint
- Governors Tackle Climate Change
- 'Applause' for British Columbia's carbon tax
- Top companies urge Congress to go green
- Big Green Brother - Wal-Mart tells its workers to live and breathe sustainability
- 400 Million Global Broadband Users
- Coming Soon, Fiber to All of the Netherlands
- Obama’s FCC Transition Team Co-chair
- Intuit lowers forecast for current year
- Cuts loom as Washington State faces $5.1 billion budget shortfall
- Simpson to Shut Down Local Mills for Three Weeks
- North Mason Clinic Closing Leaves Some Patients in Flux
- Christmas tree sales appear to be greening
- A Shocking Stat: 85% of Benton County on Food Stamps
- Napolitano emerges for Homeland Security job
- More Cabinet Talk
- McMorris Rodgers elected to leadership role

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

WORD OF THE DAY

Gravid • \GRAV-id\ • adjective - *1: pregnant 2: distended with or full of eggs

Passersby stopped and stared, astounded at Alice’s exaggerated gravid appearance. “I guess there’s no such thing as being a ‘little pregnant’,” said her awestruck partner. “But you are living proof that there is such a thing as being VERY pregnant.”

WEATHER

Shelton Forecast and Weather Alerts
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

Strong Winds in Cascade Foothills Drop Trees, Cut Power Lines (KIRO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.kirotv.com/news/18023820/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=news

Jefferson PUD urged to move quickly on power franchise (Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, WA)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20081120/news/311209993

Wenatchee - First Alcoa workers notified of layoffs (Wenatchee World, WA)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081119/NEWS04/711209939

Council Hears Competing Sides In Proposed Alcoa Power Sale (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/3596-power-council-hears-competing-sides-proposed-alcoa-power-sale/

Seattle P-I Editorial - Northwest needs: Pay attention to us: The region's need for intelligent environmental, energy and climate decisions is urgent
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/388528_nwobamaed.html?source=rss

Opponents Say Federal Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Would Pollute (Northwest Public Radio)
http://www.nwpr.org/07/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=4588

Some City of Tacoma workers underpaid, study says - Pay scales for the city and for Tacoma Public Utilities are low for lots of jobs, high for others (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/543502.html

PG&E starts Colusa natural gas power plant construction (San Francisco Business Times)
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/11/17/daily74.html?ana=from_rss

FISH & WILDLIFE

Get those ugly chum while you can - Still a few of these fish available to catch in area rivers (Everett Herald, WA)
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081120/SPORTS/711209844/1004/SPORTS

Most of California’s native game fish face extinction (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/20/MN3E147V6I.DTL&feed=rss.news

Changes to Species Act Are Said to Be Near (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111904585.html?nav=rss_nation

Sea lion numbers a mixed bag (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008415015_apaksealions1stldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

USDA Panel Approves First Rules For Labeling Farmed Fish 'Organic' (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111903787.html?nav=rss_nation

ComEd's Lake Michigan Bird-Friendly Efforts Take Flight (Electric Energy Online)
http://www.electricenergyonline.com/IndustryNews.asp?m=1&id=101144

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Is the Northwest Running Out of Water? (Northwest Public Radio)
http://www.nwpr.org/07/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=4590

Rainwater Turns To Noxious Soup, Flows To Sound (KIRO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.kirotv.com/news/18008323/detail.html?treets=sea&tid=2653595907813&tml=sea_7am&tmi=sea_7am_-1_09000111202008&ts=H

Crews racing Mother Nature to repair 30 Western Washington levees (KOMO-TV, Seattle)
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/34793354.html

Seattle raises $205 million through water bonds (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/388582_bonds20.html?source=rss

Group that backs public artesian well in Olympia to disband (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/667694.html

RENEWABLE ENERGY & CONSERVATION

Clean Energy Confronts Messy Reality (Wall Street Journal)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714114743842743.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Ocean water could bring limitless clean energy (ChattahBox)
http://chattahbox.com/science/2008/11/20/ocean-water-could-bring-limitless-clean-energy/

Wal-Mart buys wind energy supply - Demands rates with no renewable energy premiums (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008414891_aparwalmartwindenergy.html?syndication=rss

WAPA buying wind power from Basin (Associated Press)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-nd-wapa-wind,0,3655003.story

Car Charging - Nissan drives a deal with Oregon (Portland Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/11/17/daily32.html?ana=from_rss

No-No Biomass – California smoke police begin crackdown on newly illegal chimney fires - Barbecue grills and outdoor pizza ovens are exempt (San Jose Mercury News)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11025429?source=rss

NY Times Op/Ed - What’s the Point of Daylight Time?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/opinion/20kotchen.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Measuring the National Carbon Footprint - How do you total up the greenhouse-gas emissions for an entire country? (Slate Magazine)
http://www.slate.com/id/2205011/?from=rss

Governors Tackle Climate Change (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97203134

'Applause' for British Columbia's carbon tax at California speech (The Province, BC)
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=b00f5459-b65b-4dd0-81d2-0619f97610e8

Top companies urge Congress to go green - Starbucks, others to lobby for climate legislation (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/388585_green20.html?source=rss

Big Green Brother - When Wal-Mart tells its workers to live and breathe sustainability, is it (a) creepy, (b) innovative, (c) greenwashing, (d) all of the above? (Mother Jones Magazine)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/11/big-green-brother.html

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

400 Million Global Broadband Users - 680 million by 2013, with the biggest number in China (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/400-Million-Global-Broadband-Users-99200

Coming Soon, Fiber to All of the Netherlands (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2008/11/19/big-fiber-in-little-netherlands/

Obama’s FCC Transition Team Co-chair a WoW Player – Check it out! He looks like David Byrne from the “Talking Heads!” (GigaOM)
http://gigaom.com/2008/11/18/obamas-fcc-transition-team-co-chair-a-wow-player/

Intuit lowers forecast for current year (San Jose Mercury News)
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11023850?source=rss

GENERAL NEWS

Cuts loom as state faces $5.1 billion budget shortfall - No special session planned to sort out mess (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/668120.html

Simpson to Shut Down Local Mills for Three Weeks (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/selectmoduleid/3468/ArticleID/5624/reftab/1632/title/SIMPSON_TO_SHUT_DOWN_FOR_THREE_WEEKS/Default.aspx

North Mason Clinic's Closing Leaves Some Patients in Flux (Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, WA)
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/nov/19/nm-clinics-closing-leaves-some-patients-in-flux/?partner=RSS

Christmas tree sales appear to be greening - Growers predict the economy will keep more people home this year, boosting their business (The Oregonian, Portland, OR)
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1227153331223220.xml&coll=7

A Shocking Stat: 85% of Benton County on Food Stamps (KEPR-TV, Tri-Cities)
http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/34783929.html

Dems: Napolitano emerges for Homeland Security job (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008412319_apobamacabinet.html?syndication=rss

More Cabinet Talk - Discussions with Clintons as Obama Creates Team (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/politics/20obama.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

McMorris Rodgers elected to leadership role (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008411621_apwamcmorrisrodgersleadership.html?syndication=rss

DIVERSIONS

Graham School Hosting Donkey Basketball, PETA Wants It Benched
http://www.kirotv.com/news/18017983/detail.html?treets=sea&tid=2653595907813&tml=sea_7am&tmi=sea_7am_-1_09000111202008&ts=H

Mystery Meat Dumped In Town Common - Residents Concerned Meat May Be Poisoned
http://www.kirotv.com/health/18023673/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=irresistible

Retired Librarian Gives $1M Each to Her Colleges
http://www.kirotv.com/news/18016969/detail.html?rss=sea&psp=irresistible

Pot smugglers toss 5 tons of marijuana into sea
http://www.examiner.com/a-1701520~Pot_smugglers_toss_5_tons_of_marijuana_into_sea.html?cid=rss-California_Headlines

Gremlin-Like Creatures Rediscovered in Indonesia - “Knew your father, I did!”
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/science/2008/November/Gremlin-Like-Creatures-Rediscovered-in-Indonesia.html