The Election

Two items in the news are serving to reinforce two of my favorite themes.

1. You can trust parties more than personalities.
2. The worst polluters do it because it's the cheapest way to do business.

In the months leading up to the 2012 election for Washington Governor, I found myself growing increasingly frustrated about the near invisibility of Puget Sound as a campaign issue.

Washington Governor - Moderation vs. solutions on Puget Sound UPDATE1

You don't want to believe any Republican who claims to support cleanup and restoration of Puget Sound. It is by definition empty rhetoric.

The basic - extreme - positions held by the bulk of the party are fundamentally incompatible with the goal of a clean, healthy Puget Sound.

We can reduce what it means to being a Republican to two simplistic things:

Remember the environment?

Tonight is the first head-to-head debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, but when was the last time you heard either of them address environmental issues directly? The Nation's Mark Hertsgaard has an excellent set of questions they both should answer, gathered from leading U.S. environmentalists:

Hot Topics: Ten Questions on Energy and the Environment Obama and Romney Should Answer at the Debate

People For Puget Sound: 1991-2012

Environmentalists around western Washington were shocked this week by the announcement of the end of People For Puget Sound. The 21 year old water quality activism group will close at the end of this month.

As a former employee of People For Puget Sound I heard this was coming, but I'm not here to try to make excuses for them or gloss over problems. People For Puget Sound's internal problems are like those faced by ANY nonprofit, business or public agency when they reach a certain age. The dynamics of a group of people trying to work together toward a broad, long term goal is not a reflection on the capabilities of the individuals -- all of whom are in some way outstanding in their areas of expertise.

Cameron Emptor

An August 2, 2012 article about the three leading PRT systems in a forum called Smartlinks certainly reads well.

Its subject is the race between Ultra and 2getthere to put their first pod systems into service at Heathrow and Masdar City, respectively, as well as a brief history of the Vectus program.

It's a straightforward piece of writing, full of facts and reasonable prose. However, the author byline at the bottom of the story renders the whole thing dubious: