seattleDIRT

Irascible will be out. Approachable will be in. That oil drilling and federal earmarks? They will still be a go. “What you have here is a state in transformation,” said Mr. Begich, who will become Alaska’s first Democratic senator since Mike Gravel left office in 1981. “What I want to do,” he said, “is repackage some of the messaging of what we have here that will have an impact on this country.” New York Times 11/20/2008

The national economic crisis is pounding state budgets here at home. On Wednesday Oregon and Washington got bad news about tax revenues. They’re down — dramatically — and that means budget cuts will be necessary. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports. Oregon Public Broadcasting 11/19/2008

In July, Nissan North America’s product planning director noticed that Oregon — the nation’s hybrid-car capital — was installing electric-vehicle charging stations. Soon, Nissan, PGE, and Kulongoski hatched a deal, announced Wednesday, to include Oregon among a handful of sites worldwide to pioneer zero-emission vehicles. Oregonian 11/20/2008

The global economic crisis is hurting a new sector of the B.C. economy: recyclers. Some goods are fetching only a third of the price they did in September; some recycling companies are laying off workers and others have stopped collecting certain types of plastics altogether. CBC BC 11/19/2008

A group of companies including Starbucks, Nike and Sun Microsystems has banded together to urge Congress to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and promote investment in renewable energy. For its part, Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. says that climate change is a threat because the company relies on coffee crops. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/20/2008

The carbon tax was a hit yesterday at the Global Climate Summit in California, says B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner. B.C. is the only jurisdiction in North America to have a carbon tax, which has sparked opposition from some quarters hit by rising fuel prices and an economic downturn. Vancouver Province 11/20/2008

Two-thirds of California’s native salmon, trout and steelhead are headed for extinction unless major changes are made to the way the state’s rivers are managed and protected, according to a report by one of the state’s top fish experts. Contra Costa Times 11/20/2008

According to an annual survey released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oregon is the third-hungriest state in the nation. In addition, requests for emergency food boxes are skyrocketing, the Oregon Food Bank Network reported Wednesday. Eugene Register Guard 11/20/2008

Since 2007, all Wal-Mart employees in the US have been asked to take a simple, concrete step to benefit their health, their local community, or the earth–part of an initiative called the Personal Sustainability Project, a.k.a. psp. Pledges, which can involve work or home life or both, have included vows to drive the speed limit (to save gas), clean up trash, quit smoking, switch to a reusable bottle, or turn off the tap when toothbrushing. Mother Jones Magazine 11/20/2008