Energy News Digest for April 23, 2009

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.

To subscribe, email jmyer@masonpud3.org

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS (Details Below)

- BPA Transmission Upgrades in Shelton - Delays Possible On Olympic Highway North
- Two Earth-Friendly Bills Headed To Governor
- FERC Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary
- How Smart Can The Grid Get?
- Oregon AG Wants Increased Use of Domestic Natural Gas
- Is the Near-Record Columbia River Spring Chinook Run Late or Just Not Coming
- Alliances Changing In Battle to Save Salmon
- Obama: Good News for Columbia River Salmon
- Thompson Bill Charts Policy for Wild Pacific Salmon
- Puget Sound Rockfish May Get Federal Protection
- Federal Stimulus Money Accelerates Elwha Dam Project
- Washington Lowland Lakes Trout Opener Is Saturday
- Mason County TO Celebrate Completion of Rustlewood Sewer Upgrades
- Major Shift on Tap For Walla Walla River Basin Water Management
- Planting a Garden in That Parking Strip Could Cost You A Bunch of Green
- Tidal Turbines Destined for Admiralty Head
- Offshore Wind Farms Get Green Light
- Help, I’m On Fire! - Do-It-Yourself Biodiesel Trend Brings Fire Risk
- Cowlitz Co. Man Fined For Alleged Water Power Device
- Lower Your Energy Bills With Kill A Watt!
- A Greener Home Could Save Your Money and Your Health
- Seattle Residents Get Break On Energy Evaluation
- West Linn Tidings Op/Ed – An Oregon State Carbon Cap Costly, Not Needed
- Cantwell on Cap and Dividend
- EPA: Greenhouse gas limits would lead to 'modest' electricity price increases
- Who’s going to get the Carbon Pollution Credits?
- US Carbon Giveaways and Spending the Proceeds
- Lisa Jackson: The New Head of the EPA
- Time Warner Cable Cannot Possibly Compete With the Small City of Wilson, NC
- No, Broadband Is Not an Economic Magic Wand
- Earthlink Struggles with Earth Day Outage
- MySpace Co-Founder DeWolfe to Step down
- State Workers’ Four-Day Week Saves A Bit
- Alaska to Charge for First Bag after First Quarter Loss
- Leader in Tribal Fishing, Gaming Issues Dies

WORD OF THE DAY

Eidetic • \eye-DET-ik\ • adjective - Marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images

At once a blessing and a curse, Marco’s eidetic memory was the wonder of the manufacturing floor at Barty’s “Eclectic Tiddlywinks Factory.” Although Marco could recall in intricate detail the texture, color, even the smell of each tiddlywink that he inspected for final shipping…that was the ONLY thing he could recall, which made his talent slightly less impressive to tiddlywind “outsiders.”

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

BPA Transmission Upgrades in Shelton - Delays Possible On Olympic Highway North Today (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/smid/3468/ArticleID/7044/reftab/1632/t/DELAYS-POSSIBLE-ON-OLYMPIC-HIGHWAY-NORTH-TODAY-/Default.aspx

Two Earth-Friendly Bills Headed To Governor - Gregoire signs a third aimed at renewable energy (The Columbian, Vancouver, WA)
http://columbian.com/article/20090423/NEWS02/904229973/

FERC Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary “…renewables like wind, solar and biomass will provide enough energy to meet baseload capacity and future energy demands…” (Baseload demands, huh? NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/04/22/22greenwire-no-need-to-build-new-us-coal-or-nuclear-plants-10630.html

How Smart Can The Grid Get? (MSNBC)
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/22/1903394.aspx

Oregon AG Wants Increased Use of Domestic Natural Gas (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/4830-oregon-ag-wants-increased-use-domestic-natural-gas/

FISH & WILDLIFE

Is The Near-Record Columbia River Spring Chinook Run Late Or Just Not Coming Back Like Expected? (Seattle Times)
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/reeltimenorthwest/2009/04/22/is_the_near-record_columbia_ri.html

Alliances Changing In Battle to Save Salmon (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
http://news.opb.org/article/4828-alliances-changing-battle-save-salmon/

Obama: Good News for Columbia River Salmon (Crosscut Seattle)
http://crosscut.com/2009/04/23/federal/18967/

Thompson Bill Charts Policy for Wild Pacific Salmon (The Times-Standard, Eureka, CA)http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12207596

Puget Sound Rockfish May Get Federal Protection (Associated Press)
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/43473272.html

Federal Stimulus Money Accelerates Elwha Dam Project (Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, WA)
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/apr/22/federal-stimulus-money-accelerates-elwha-dam/?partner=RSS

Washington Lowland Lakes Trout Opener Is Saturday (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2009104003_fish23.html?syndication=rss

WATER & THE ENVIRONMENT

Mason County TO Celebrate Completion of Rustlewood Sewer Upgrades (KMAS Radio, Shelton, WA)
http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1897/smid/3468/ArticleID/7054/reftab/1632/t/COUNTY-TO-CELEBRATE-COMPLETION-OF-RUSTLEWOOD-SEWER-UPGRADES/Default.aspx

Major shift on tap for Walla Walla River basin water management (The Union Bulletin, Walla Walla, WA)
http://union-bulletin.com/articles/2009/04/22/local_news/090422local02watershedbill.txt

In Seattle, Planting A Garden in That Parking Strip Could Cost You A Bunch of Green (Seattle Post-Globe)
http://seattlepostglobe.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153:it-could-cost-you-to-plant-a-garden-in-that-parking-strip-&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18

RENEWABLE/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Tidal Turbines Destined for Admiralty Head (Whidbey Examiner, WA)
http://www.whidbeyexaminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=2468&TM=71812.3

Offshore Wind Farms Get Green Light - The federal government has cleared the way for developers to plant wind farms in offshore waters on the outer continental shelf (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009106951_wind23.html?syndication=rss

Help, I’m On Fire! - Do-It-Yourself Biodiesel Trend Brings Fire Risk (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/718367.html

Cowlitz Co. Man Fined For Alleged Water Power Device (Associated Press)
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/828199.html

CONSERVATION & EFFICIENCY

Lower Your Energy Bills With Kill A Watt! (KEPR-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)
http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/43493107.html

A Greener Home Could Save Your Money and Your Health (KNDU-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)
http://www.kndu.com/global/story.asp?s=10232616

Seattle Residents Get Break On Energy Evaluation - Seattle is offering 5,000 discounted home energy-use evaluations as part of a new initiative to cut energy use (Seattle Times – Hurray for free PUD energy audits!)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009106644_webenergy23m.html?syndication=rss

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

West Linn Tidings Op/Ed – An Oregon State Carbon Cap Costly, Not Needed
http://www.westlinntidings.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=124043258440292900

Cantwell on Cap and Dividend (Sightline Daily)
http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2009/04/22/cantwell-on-cap-and-dividend

EPA: Greenhouse gas limits would lead to 'modest' electricity price increases (Dallas Morning News, TX)http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042309dnbusgreenhouse.fd9dc04c.html

Who’s going to get the Carbon Pollution Credits? (Christian Science Monitor)
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/04/14/whos-going-to-get-the-carbon-pollution-credits/

US Carbon Giveaways and Spending the Proceeds (Financial Times Of London)
http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2009/04/23/us-carbon-giveaways-and-spending-the-proceeds/

Lisa Jackson: The New Head of the EPA (Time Magazine)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893155,00.html

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Time Warner Cable Cannot Possibly Compete With the Small City of Wilson, NC (The Consumerist)
http://consumerist.com/5224578/time-warner-cable-cannot-possibly-compete-with-the-small-city-of-wilson-nc

No, Broadband Is Not an Economic Magic Wand - A tale of two rural Western Virginia towns (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/No-Broadband-Is-Not-An-Economic-Magic-Wand-102078

Earthlink Struggles With Earth Day Outage - Pasadena power outage takes websites, e-mail offline (Broadband Reports)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Earthlink-Struggles-With-Earth-Day-Outage-102059

MySpace Co-Founder DeWolfe to Step down (Associated Press)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009105401_apnewscorpmyspace.html?syndication=rss

GENERAL NEWS

Four-Day Week Saves A Bit - Six-month test: State workers love it, use fewer sick days, report says (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/localnewsfeed/story/829016.html

Alaska to Charge for First Bag after First Quarter Loss (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/829449.html

Leader in Tribal Fishing, Gaming Issues Dies (Wenatchee World)
http://wenatcheeworld.com/article/20090422/NEWS04/704229921

DIVERSIONS

Judge Orders Defendant's Mouth Taped Shut - ACLU Refrains From Commenting
http://www.kirotv.com/news/19241894/detail.html

Judge Taking Names, Seeking To Ban Odd Ones
http://www.kirotv.com/news/19245007/detail.html

John Curley: Local TV Host Aiming for a New Life in Politics
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/43491772.html

Colbert: Does Bill Gates Ever Talk About Me?
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/43492797.html

SONG OF THE DAY

Carly Simon – You’re So Vain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B7bVD_DkM4