The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a list of the smartest cities (large, medium and small) and Seattle was ranked as the top large city (population over 250,000) in the  country, followed by San Francisco and Portland.  The rankings were based on a set of 10 criteria, including air quality, water quality and conservation, energy and conservation, and transportation.  It's hard to see how Seattle would have make top of the list without yesterday's start-up of light-rail. 

Ezra Klein, writing at the WAPO, asks an interesting question after mulling over the resistance that the House Agriculture Committee members offered to the passage of the climate bill last week.  I had been assuming the way to break up the unremitting influence of big Ag on the Congressional Ag committees was to put some Congressional folks from states with our kind of diverse agriculture on the committees.  Ezra suggests that we just get rid of the Agriculture Committees. 

"The broccoli is one item that goes fastest."  The Mount Vernon School District has been experimenting with adding more nutritional value to their school breakfasts and lunches for several years.  For the past two years, the joint lunch room for Mount Baker Middle School and Little Mountain Elementary School has had a vegetable and fruit bar for the students.  It has turned out to be quite a hit, allowing students to pick out the fresh produce they most want and try out new items on their own terms.

Tom Tidwell, recently selected as the new Chief of the U.S. Forest Service has spent much of his 32 years in the Forest Service in Washington, Idaho and Montana as well as serving in several other districts in the West and in the DC office as Legislative Affairs Specialist.  According to the Great Falls Tribune in Montana, where Tidwell served most recently, he is well respected by a variety of interest groups.  Keith Olson, executive director of the Montana Logging Association, says, "Tidwell's 'principle qualification' for the job is an ability to bring together groups that historically have been at odds with each other over forest management.  He's got that quiet, professional demeanor that allows him not only to be a good listener but an excellent collaborator."

The 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago will soon get a $350 million retrofit aimed at reducing electricity use in the tower by 80% over five years.  The 4.5 million sq.ft. building will employ upgrades in the glass exterior, internal lighting, heating, cooling and its own green power generation utilizing wind turbines on its rooftops. 

According to an article in the NYT, "buildings are among the world’s largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. After the retrofit, energy savings at the Sears Tower, which is to be renamed the Willis Tower this summer, would be equal to 150,000 barrels of oil a year, officials said".

Agriculture is one of the top industries in Washington State.  It ranks right up there with aerospace, software and biotech.  Unlike most states which have only one or two big crops, Washington has a huge number of what are called "specialty crops", i.e. apples, pears, raspberries, milk, pears, wheat, potatoes and so on. Of these, only wheat is one of the "big 5" US crops (the others being corn, soybeans, cotton and rice) that together receive 92% of US subsidies.