The Green Files

Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[Illusionfree.com] No Illusions: It certainly changes the calculus for expansion, and for locating new production. That will be the process by which one company’s problem becomes a great opportunity for a developing economy that isn’t subject to Kyoto-like constraints.

[Econlog.econlib.org] EconLog, Global Warming, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and ...: We don't know what's causing it; we certainly don't know what is the cheapest solution. We can't sit back and hope for the best, but neither should we participate in Kyoto - which is concerned only with reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, however little that will do. My solution: Climate Stability Bonds, which inextricably tie rewards to achievement of climate stability. They do not prejudge how best to mitigate climate change: instead they inject market incentives into the achievement of sustained climate stability.

 [Climateark.org] 10/10/2003 -- States take the lead on global warming: Similarly, governors on the West Coast recently announced a joint strategy to reduce global warming. Included in this effort: using their combined purchasing power to buy fuel-efficient vehicles for official use; developing uniform appliance-efficiency standards; collaborating to measure and report greenhouse-gas emissions; reducing the use of diesel generators on ships in California, Oregon, and Washington State ports.

[Cascadiascorecard.typepad.com] Cascadia Scorecard Weblog: Weather: The Pacific Forest Trust of Santa Rosa, California, arranges deals between property owners willing to leave their land in old forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, and polluters willing to pay to mitigate their emissions. The nonprofit Climate Trust in Portland supports efforts ranging from energy efficiency to tree planting, using funds--more than $10 million since 1997--that it receives from new power plants forced to offset their greenhouse gas emissions to comply with state law. From 1998 to 2002, the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Pilot, based in Victoria, BC, kept tens of millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by brokering trades between companies willing to emit less and those willing to pay more. Many of the lessons learned in the process went into creation of Canada’s plan for complying with the Kyoto protocol.

[Cascadiascorecard.typepad.com] Cascadia Scorecard Weblog: May 2005: And finally, there's this:  I keep hearing claims that Portland's (and to a lesser extent Seattle's) growth management laws are leading to rapid escalation in housing prices.  That may be so for certain kinds of housing:  houses with really big lawns tend to be more expensive in places where the supply of developable land is limited.  But Portland's overall housing price appreciation over the past 5 years has been very modest -- prices have risen at about the same pace as in El Paso, TX, and just a little faster than in New Orleans, Houston, and Atlanta; but they've gone up less than half as quickly as in Oakland, Tampa, Baltimore, Boston, San Diego, Las Vegas, Newark NJ, and so on, and on.  And this in spite of the fact that some fugitives from the red-hot California real estate markets have moved northward (sometimes with some cash in hand) to try to take advantage of Portland's relatively low-cost housing.

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