Why That Fish You Ordered is Holding Up the State Budget

Yesterday afternoon, the Everett Herald’s Jerry Cornfield reported that the delay in approving a Washington State budget was truly fishy: “Boeing’s opposition to fish study a sticking point in budget,” went the headline. With a government shutdown to come in fewer than five days, it might seem strange that negotiations are getting hung up on a mundane study of how often people eat fish. Continue reading Why That Fish You Ordered is Holding Up the State Budget

Environment, News, Science

While EU Acts, EPA Blows Smoke in Bee Death Report

Though the EU just voted to restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides for two years until their safety could be proved, Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, was quoted in the New York Times saying: “At E.P.A. we let science drive the outcome of decision making,” then noting the cost of a ban. Continue reading While EU Acts, EPA Blows Smoke in Bee Death Report

Environment, News, Science

How Clean is Our Water? How Clean Should It Be?

It comes back to a conflict at the heart of the Duwamish clean-up — could the river ever be made safe enough for residents to eat the fish and shellfish that lived in it, or was it enough to approximate the urban contamination we live with in Elliott Bay, Lake Union, and Lake Washington? Continue reading How Clean is Our Water? How Clean Should It Be?

Environment, News, Politics, Science

EU May Ban Neonicotinoids for Bees — Will EPA Act Next?

With the EU recommending a limited ban — effective as early as July 1, 2013 — on the class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, the question becomes whether the U.S.’s EPA, which began a review of their use in 2012, will take the EU’s action as precedent. Continue reading EU May Ban Neonicotinoids for Bees — Will EPA Act Next?

Environment, News, Transportation

Electric Cars Are Coming…For You!

GM’s Volt sold 1,200 units in the first quarter of 2011. Nissan Leaf sales are expected to reach 10,000 in the U.S. alone, by the end of 2011. That’s with price tags of $40,000 and $33,000, respectively, after tax rebates. And this just in: “Ford Motor Co. plans to add 220 jobs at plants in Michigan as it triples production of electric vehicles to 100,000 annually by 2013.”

Seattle residents driving electric cars can “fill up” away from home at a growing number of recharge stations: Vulcan just opened 24 at eight locations in South Lake Union this June. Continue reading Electric Cars Are Coming…For You!