Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction
Washington's largest diesel emissions polluter will transition its fleet to diesel-hybrids and then to battery-electric propulsion to comply with Gov. Inslee's emissions-reduction executive order which will also please the orcas in Puget Sound.
Greentech Media
A new bill in the Oregon Legislature, technically called a "legislative concept," would set up a California-style cap-and-trade program, calling for steep greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2035 and 2050.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
California and Massachusetts use the same name for climate change legislation, Global Warming Solutions Act, and set the same target date for reductions, 2020. Both achieved their targets 2016, but the Bay State had a tougher goal to meet.
WBUR
Ten years ago, British Columbia launched North America's first carbon tax. This month, Premier John Horgan unveiled the long awaited climate plan, CleanBC, that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 2007 levels by 2030.
Vancouver Sun
The city of Sacramento has implemented one of the most aggressively transit-oriented land use regulation schemes in the country.
The Sacramento Bee
The environment and climate change may not be top issues in the nation's hotly contested gubernatorial contests next Tuesday, but their outcomes can cause policy changes. Take North Carolina and the election of Roy Cooper, a Democrat, two years ago.
The Charlotte Observer
The American Cities Climate Challenge seeks to green the carbon-heavy transportation and building sectors.
Metro Magazine
While forests sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, wildfires release enormous amounts of greenhouse gases as they increase in frequency and intensity from climate change.
San Francisco Chronicle
The last time the San Francisco Bay Area got together to set a regional agenda on housing and transportation, the Sierra Club and the Tea Party teamed up to oppose the Plan Bay Area. A draft of the new Plan Bay Area 2040 hopes to avoid the drama.
San Francisco Chronicle
Athlyn Cathcart-Keays of The Guardian-Cities chronicles the advancement of the international urban car-free movement as well as auto regulations that focus on air pollution. The most recent city to join the growing list is Oslo, Norway
The Guardian Cities
The University of California, Berkeley and NRDC will team-up to verify whether Uber and Lyft reduce car ownership and are thus good for the environment. Such data already exists for a sister form of shared mobility: car-share.
The Verge
California industries are buying offsets in lieu of purchasing carbon allowances or reducing carbon emissions, and most of the offsets are spent out-of-state, assisting the recipients economically as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
KQED: California Report
The Seattle 2035 will manage growth for one of the fastest growing cities in the country. But shouldn't it also mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions of this famously eco-conscious city?
Publicola
In NYC, unlike most areas in the United States, buildings, rather than transportation, are the major source of carbon emissions. Passive buildings, with their negligible heating and cooling costs, could help meet carbon reduction goals.
The New York Times - Real Estate
Calling the news proof that "fighting climate change and growing a thriving economy can go hand-in-hand," San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced some substantial progress in greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
City and County of San Francisco Office of the Mayor
Mirroring a previously reported increase in gasoline consumption in California, the vehicle miles traveled increase over last year is the largest in a decade. The reasons are the same: cheaper gas and an improved economy with more people working.
The Sacramento Bee
San Francisco's Department of Environment will soon begin enforcing the city's mandatory commuter benefits program for the first time since the law's inception in 2009. Fines up to $500 may be levied for noncompliance after warning notices are sent.
San Francisco Examiner
As the largest council of governments in the country adopts a $525 billion transportation and land use plan for the next two decades, Josh Stephens marks the beginning of Southern California's age of climate-friendly, smart-growth regionalism.
California Planning & Development Report
John King writes about an ambitious new regional plan for the Bay Area that looks to accommodate the 1.1 million new jobs and 2.1 million new residents expected by 2040, with relatively little suburban sprawl.
San Francisco Chronicle
In another sign of the coming apocalypse, a bipartisan group of House members have devised an entirely sensible way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, grow employment, and shrink the budget deficit in one fell swoop, by placing a price on carbon.
The Washington Post
