Jay Inslee

Suppose an industry could profit by filing a lawsuit judged to be thoroughly without merit. That’s pretty much what critics say the Bush administration let the U.S. timber industry get away with. Now eight members of Congress from the Pacific Northwest are asking Congress's investigative arm,  the Government Accountability Office, to look into the deal.

It’s an enormously complicated story that I detailed for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. But essentially it comes down to this:

The U.S. timber industry filed charges against the Canadian timber industry in international trade courts. The Americans alleged the Canadians were getting unfair government subsidies.  The Americans lost at nearly every turn. But the U.S. timber industry – as it increased costs to American consumers – was bleeding the Canadian timber-cutters dry. How? With tariffs that boosted the price of Canadian timber on this side of the border.

Then, facing the prospect of endless appeals by the Americans, the desperate Canadians -- who had seen mills go dark and were starved for cash -- agreed to a really unusual deal, as international trade pact settlements go: The Bush administration offered to send back to Canada the $5 billion in tariffs collected -- so long as the Canadians agreed to then send $1 billion back across the border, with most of it going to the U.S. timber industry or to non-profit groups with ties to the U.S. industry.

A recent study by National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council suggests that urban infill, as opposed to urban sprawl, may result in lower carbon dioxide emissions, reports the Forest Grove News-Times.

The study argues that if Americans chose to build up cities, rather than build out, residents would need to drive less, thus reducing their fossil fuel dependency and decreasing overall CO2 emissions by 1-11 percent by 2050. According to the report,  doubling residential density could lower household driving by 5-12 percent. "Compact development" calls for more centralized businesses too -- which means closer-to-home jobs, shopping and activities. The full report also summons the use of alternative modes of transportation in curbing CO2 emissions.

But the committee was at odds over the feasibility of this kind of development, some believing it strays too far from current land-use norms, which favor low-density suburbs. One concern in particular is that state and regional entities would need to have a stronger hand in  controlling development to achieve such results.

With the the transportation sector  accounting for over a quarter of U.S. energy consumption, not to mention a large portion of the country's CO2 emissions,  cities are realizing they must quickly address growing vehicle travel.

At the national level, a bill was introduced in June, in part, by Washington State's Jay Inslee (D-WA), titled the National Transportation Objectives Act. H.R.