Sustainable North

From The Associated Press, Wednesday, August 25, 2010;
Sales of new homes dropped sharply last month to the slowest pace on record, the latest sign that the economic recovery is fading.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new home sales fell 12.4 percent in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of [...]

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From The New York Times, Friday, August 13, 2010:
The recession is lingering, and so is the unspent stimulus money that was meant to help end it.
The latest example is the $3.2 billion that Congress voted in February 2009 as part of an economic stimulus package to simultaneously provide jobs and improve energy efficiency through block [...]

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From the US Dept. of Energy:
The size of new U.S. single-family homes completed in 2009 declined, dropping to a nationwide average of 2,438 square feet and reversing trend of the past three decades, according to a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). New single-family homes were almost 100 square feet smaller in 2009 than they [...]

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From The Associated Press, Wednesday, January 27, 2010:
A proposal by Gov. Sean Parnell to suspend Alaska’s motor fuels tax may undermine federal transportation funding, U.S. Rep. Don Young said Tuesday.
In a statement, the Republican lawmaker commended Parnell, also a Republican, for trying to relieve Alaskans’ “pain at the pump.” But he added: “By suspending the [...]

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From Alaska Dispatch, Sunday, January 17, 2010:
An Anchorage lawmaker says he’ll file a bill offering middle class homeowners — strapped for cash and still reeling from high energy costs — a back door into energy efficiency upgrades.
We reported recently on the lack of follow through by thousands of Alaskans who started a home energy efficiency [...]

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From CBC News, Tuesday, December 15, 2009:
A new study suggests the financial burden of Arctic climate change is already falling on Inuit people and the heaviest costs are hurting those families least able to pay.
The study backs demands made by Inuit leaders for a share of global funds being proposed to help adapt to a [...]

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From Treehugger.com:
Let’s face it: With all that rushing, consuming, and bargain-hunting, the holidays can be darn stressful. So this year, following the best of the methodology pioneered by the revolutionary Slow Food Movement, TreeHugger is taking them back. We’re putting the brakes on stress and over consumption and making a return to those idyllic holidays [...]

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From Business Week, Wednesday, November 18, 2009:
New housing starts dropped 10.6% in October compared with September, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 529,000, the Commerce Dept.reported on Nov. 18. The number, which was lower than analyst estimates, is a seven-month low.
October housing starts were down 30.7% year-over-year.
Single-family housing starts were off 6.8% in October, to [...]

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From the Alaska Journal of Commerce, Monday, November 16, 2009:
A statewide weatherization program with the potential of reducing energy costs in thousands of Alaskan residences will improve some 1,740 homes in 2009 alone, and Alaska Housing Finance Corp. expects to more than quadruple that number by 2011. The goal is to weatherize 4,000 homes in [...]

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Released by the American Council for an Energy Efficient-Economy (ACEEE), Tuesday, October 27, 2009:
Climate Change Policy as an Economic Redevelopment Opportunity: The Role of Productive Investments in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions offers critical insights about climate legislation just as U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), introduces her new climate [...]

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