A series of data visualizations accompanying the recent “Energy Security in the United States” report by the Congressional Budget Office shows the lion’s share of energy used in the United States still comes from fossil fuel sources such as oil, coal and natural gas. The three accounted for 84 percent of total energy use in the U.S. in 2010 with nuclear and renewable energy sources each providing eight percent of the mix. Looking at major energy-using sectors of the economy, CBO found that 94 percent of U.S. 2010 transportation energy spending was used for oil. In the electric sector, 21 percent of the energy spending was on nuclear power, 10 percent on renewables, 19 percent on natural gas and 48 percent on coal. The data visualization also breaks down the sourcing of energy to the HVAC and industrial sectors.

Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

Different regions source their electricity differently. In percentage of 2009 electricity production by region, the West relied most heavily on wind power versus any of the seven other regions, while the North Central and Great Lakes regions leaned most on coal. Nuclear power to generate electricity was most prevalent in the Northeast, and natural gas in Florida.

Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

Whereas U.S. consumers have some protection against sharp electricity price spikes because of diverse sources, the same is not true in the transportation sector, says the CBO report.

Source: Energy Security In The United States, Congressional Budget Office

The report says that among policy options elected leaders can examine more closely to limit consumer vulnerability to transportation energy price spikes, one is to increase transit in major metro regions and raise the gas tax. CBO warns that rail transit carries especially high infrastructure costs versus expanded bus service, and that in any event, broader transit adoption in metro regions depends heavily on door-to-door travel times and service reliability. CBO also suggests policymakers consider how to develop greater incentives for telecommuting and urban density although both have been slow to truly take hold in many U.S. metro regions.

The report also mentions further subsidies for research and development of alternative fuels to power passenger vehicles but says that whole endeavor involves “significant uncertainties” around economic feasibility and implementation. Reaching into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is also an option, but that would likely be counteracted by a tightening of oil supply to the U.S. from major producer nations, says CBO.

A Gold Bar, Wash. man named Michael Robert Downer is now serving a 45-day jail term for felony first degree theft after without authorization he spent at least $13,735 on himself from a larger nest egg account that he jointly administered with and for his 80-year-old mother. She lives in a senior citizen apartment complex in Everett, and he was serving as a state-licensed nursing assistant for her at the time. Judgement and sentencing documents show Downer, 60 – whose registered voter address is a Gold Bar camping park populated with mobile homes – pled guilty on the felony theft charge in March of this year and began serving the sentence in mid-April. Read the rest of this entry »

Behold the versatile egg. How much better, some say, to harvest eggs from your own backyard than in polystyrene or cardboard packages from the grocery store. As interest grows in urban agriculture and locally-sourced foods, it’s not only in overtly green cities such as Seattle that governments are being asked to help pave the way back to a simpler time. Some suburban communities that were once rural are returning to their roots. And so at its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday May 10 the Lake Forest Park City Council will hold a public hearing on a long-in-the-works proposed ordinance to make it easier for local residents to keep chickens on their properties. At approximately 7:30, half an hour in to the council meeting, the hearing is scheduled on the measure to amend to the Lake Forest Park Municipal Code in response to “an increase in citizen demand for backyard chickens and the need to streamline the process associated with regulating this activity,” according to a city staff memo attached to the ordinance. Read the rest of this entry »

The University of Washington is planning to contract with a smartphone applications developer who will build an app for iPhone and Android to promote events, information resources, testing and research to help gay men avoid or manage the HIV virus and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Using Emerging Opportunities Grant funds of up to $15,000 from the UW Center For AIDS Research, UW Medicine will engage with a vendor who according to contracting documents will be asked to integrate the app with the Seattle Gay Scene (SGC) website’s newsfeed and calendar as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Details of the plan are found in a Request For Proposals from vendors and an accompanying Q&A document. Read the rest of this entry »

A newly-released focus report on U.S. households by the Census Bureau reveals Washington State is in the top fifth nationally in mixed-race households. Which ever way you slice it. Of Washington husband-wife households counted in the 2010 Census, 10.9 percent were mixed race – versus 6.9 percent nationally. That ranks eighth out of the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The trend carried across other types of couplings in Washington households. Of unmarried, opposite-sex partner households in Washington, 19.6 percent were mixed race versus 14.2 percent nationally; the state ranked eighth of 52. For same-sex households in Washington, 18.5 percent included partners of different races, versus 14.5 percent nationally; and the state ranked 10th of 52. The report was full of other notable findings nationally, and for Washington and Seattle – regarding solo households, households with children, households headed by single women and single moms, and same-sex households. Read the rest of this entry »

King County ranks in the top two percent nationally for male and female life expectancy, according to a nationwide survey of all 3,147 U.S. counties or county equivalents, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. IHME’s U.S. County Performance Research Team, led by Dr. Ali Mokdad, of Mercer Island, recently presented the survey data (here, in an Excel file) at a health care journalists conference in Atlanta. Researchers gathered life expectancy data for men and for women in each U.S. county, and used 1989, 1999 and 2009 as key touchpoints. Read the rest of this entry »

Under a law approved by voters in 2008, 80 different doctors wrote prescriptions for 103 lethal doses of medication in Washington in 2011 and 94 of the patients are known to have died, according to the state’s third annual Death With Dignity Act report. Issued today by the Washington State Department of Health, the report also notes that the 2011 totals for assisted suicide requests and deaths under the law reached a new high since the enabling state law went into effect in early 2009. Most of the 2011 Death With Dignity participants lived west of the Cascades, and were suffering from cancer. Many were concerned about losing ability to take care of themselves. A high percentage of the 94 participants who died also indicated concerns abut loss of dignity from their disease, and diminished ability to enjoy life. Participants also frequently identified as concerns their loss of bodily functions, imposing a burden on family and caregivers, and to a lesser extent, inadequate pain relief. The main drug prescribed for the assisted suicides was was secobarbital; although some doctors prescribed pentobarbital. Read the rest of this entry »

A Washington state appeals court ruling today re-opens a medical negligence lawsuit against Valley Medical Center in Renton and a doctor who worked there, by the Tukwila, Wash. parents of a prematurely born infant known as Baby Diego. They claim the hospital did nothing to keep Diego alive after his birth – despite their repeated requests and what experts testified were his 30 to 40 percent chance of survival. Taxpayer-supported Valley Medical is operated by King County Public Hospital District #1 as part of the University of Washington’s UW Medicine network. According to the appeals court ruling, the hospital bears “vicarious liability” on behalf of the named doctor if the case is ultimately decided in favor of plaintiffs Maria Perez Guardado and Cain Rafael Campos. They will now get a trial in King County Circuit Court after an earlier dismissal there of the claim in a summary judgement by Judge Cheryl B. Carey. Read the rest of this entry »