8/29 No coal vote, coal study, fuel efficiency, save dams, algae biofuel, Sound Champ, BC caffeine

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Water’s rising: Hurricane Isaac’s made landfall, bringing its storm surge to the Gulf coast, on the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destructive landfall. Meanwhile the GOP talk love and compassion. Go see Beasts of the Southern Wild and try putting it all together in your head and heart.

It's official: The initiative attempting to prohibit coal shipments through Bellingham will not be on the ballot in November. In a brief opinion issued Monday, Aug. 27, the Washington Court of Appeals upheld an Aug. 3 decision from Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Charles Snyder, who found that the anti-coal ordinance and Community Bill of Rights proposed by the Coal-Free Bellingham group could not withstand post-election legal scrutiny, and would be misleading to voters if they were put on the ballot. John Stark reports. Appeals court keeps anti-coal measure off Bellingham ballot  

Portland city Commissioner Amanda Fritz and Hood River City Council member Kate McBride rallied a group of coal export protesters outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland offices on Tuesday. The protest group wants the agency to complete a comprehensive study of the possible effects of coal exports on Northwest communities. They also want other elected officials to take action against coal exports. Bonnie Stewart reports. Portland And Hood River Officials Call For Army Corps Of Engineers Study Of Coal Exports  

The best news out of the Obama administration in a long time came in this week's announcement of a deal struck with the auto industry to double the fuel efficiency of U.S. cars and trucks by 2025, to an average of 54.5 mpg across the entire fleet. Danny Westneat writes. A win in the war on warming  

A GOP bill goes before a congressional subcommittee headed by a representative who believes dam-removal proponents seek higher gas prices and reduced lifestyles. The dams-versus-salmon dispute heats up again. Dan Chasan writes. Doc Hastings launches a new effort to save dams from salmon  

Algae biofuels just got a boost. A company in Seattle announced Wednesday that they’ve secured enough funding to expand their research on how to cultivate blue-green algae to make fuel.  Matrix Genetics has spent four years researching cyanobacteria – or blue-green algae. They are a harmless relative of the algae that cause blooms in Puget Sound, and their DNA is very simple. Their simple DNA is what made it possible for the company to genetically modify these algae to be obese. That’s right, they’re making fat algae. Ashley Ahearn reports.  Local Biofuel Efforts Gets A Boost With Fat Algae  

The Leadership Council of the Puget Sound Partnership named Friends of the San Juans (FOSJ) a 2012 Puget Sound Champion. FOSJ earned the recognition for its  effort to create a tool for prioritizing salmon protection and restoration actions for San Juan County. FOSJ named a Puget Sound Champion

And, for another angle on the caffeine flush: Caffeine has become a significant pollutant in the ocean off the U.S. Pacific Northwest, according to a university researcher. Elise Granek, a marine ecologist at Portland State University in Oregon, sampled waters up and down the Oregon coast and found measurable levels of caffeine...Granek, who did all her initial research in the waters off Oregon, said she's curious about caffeine levels in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between southern Vancouver Island and the Washington coast. That's where Victoria pumps untreated sewage effluent directly into its coastal waters, and won’t have a sewage treatment facility in place until 2018. Caffeine flushed into Pacific Ocean stresses marine life

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 300 AM PDT WED AUG 29 2012
TODAY
W WIND 10 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. N SWELL 2 FT AT 9 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
TONIGHT
W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 2 FT AT 9 SECONDS.

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