Sustainable North

From the Arctic Sounder on Thursday, January 29, 2009:
State officials assessing hardships on the lower Yukon River area for a possible disaster declaration said they’ll push to create a fuel voucher that could help the poorest families.
After two days of listening to crushing testimony from scores of residents in Emmonak and Kotlik, the team said [...]

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From businessweek.com, posted on January 6, 2009 and retrieved on Friday, January 30, 2009:
When the homebuilding industry descends on Las Vegas on Jan. 20 for its annual trade show, a highlight as always will be a project called the New American Home. This model house—a new one gets built each year—serves as a showcase for [...]

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BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner January 29th, 2009, Section A3
Back in November, we discussed basics to look for in windows. These qualities included efficiency ratings from the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC), low-emissivity (Low-E) coatings, and double or triple panes. That was before temperatures plunged [...]

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From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Wednesday, January 28, 2009:
Education leaders look to be sharpening their focus on energy research, a move spearheaded by tentative plans to build a 31,000-square-foot building dedicated to energy research — everything from wind and hydrogen to coal — at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The plan is on the fast-track. [...]

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From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Wednesday, January 28, 2009:
A document submitted as a state energy plan falls short of its mark, while renewable energy projects submitted for funding might go too far, legislators said.
Members of the House Energy Committee, including Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, were critical of the Alaska Energy Authority’s state energy plan [...]

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BY Adam Wasch, Energy Outreach Consultant for CCHRC and UAF CES
Energy Focus: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner January 22nd, 2009, Section A3
Paul Harvey, famous for “The Rest of the Story…” spots on A.M. radio, is endorsing a category of heater for which today I will endeavor to tell the rest of the story. I’m no Harvey, so [...]

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The State of Alaska has published its proposal for grant allocation from the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund. This money will fund the construction of a wide range of alternative energy projects throughout the state. The total proposed expenditure from the State of Alaska is $100 million, with a Federal match of approximately $300 million.
 
Click here [...]

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From the Anchorage Daily News on Monday, January 26, 2009:

In the coastal tundra village of Kongiganak, some residents are keeping their lights on this winter by promising to sign over future tax refunds.

But the persistent Bering Sea winds that drive up the cost of light and heat in impoverished Western Alaska are now bringing a [...]

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From the Chicago Tribune on Friday, January 23, 2009:
Even before home designers and builders headed to Las Vegas for this week’s International Builders Show, they had a pretty clear idea of where residential construction was headed.
Yes, the home-building industry is in the dumps, but there are still visionary designers coming up with a better mousetrap, [...]

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From the Washington Post on Saturday, January 24, 2009:
Frugality is finally showing up in new home developments.
Although the number of new single-family houses sold this year will probably be down about 68 percent from the peak of almost 1.3 million sold in 2005, there will still be about 420,000 households buying new homes this year, [...]

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