BOARDMAN, Ore. – It may not smell that way, but old tires and cow manure could mean clean energy at Threemile Canyon Farms near this town.

WASHINGTON – The utility synonymous with the collapse of the nuclear power industry, a consortium of utilities in the Northwest once known as “Whoops,” wants back in the game.

PORTLAND – A new $241 million office building at Portland International Airport will be a showcase for recycling sewage to help sustain the environment.

WASHINGTON – Federal funding to clean up Puget Sound would jump by 150 percent, to $50 million, under a spending bill approved Wednesday by the House interior appropriations subcommittee.

Lt. Col. Ali Hunt buckled in, put the Chevrolet Equinox in drive and pressed the accelerator.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has proposed a 25 percent cut in the research and development budget for one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the Northwest – wave and tidal power.

WASHINGTON – Initial tests have found that jet fuel made partly of camelina, algae or other bio-feed stocks can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes by more than 50 percent, doesn’t affect performance and presents no technical or safety problems, a top Boeing official said Thursday.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was defiant as an aide slipped him a note during his testimony before the House interior appropriations subcommittee. Led by two Republican senators upset by the Obama administration’s decision to cancel oil and gas leases near two national parks in southern Utah’s Red Rock Canyon region, the Senate had just blocked the White House nominee for the No. 2 slot at the Interior Department.

It was a chilly but sunny “zip-a-dee-doo-dah” kind of morning on the Tenalquot Prairie adjacent to Fort Lewis. But Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird weren’t landing on anyone’s shoulders.

More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, iconic American waterways like the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are in perilous condition and facing new sources of contamination.

WASHINGTON – A growing number of lawmakers who are deeply involved in the effort to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming are beginning to question “cap-and-trade,” the current hot-button solution to the problem.

The Nisqually River gnaws away on big rocks pushed into place the last time it took a chunk out of this dike, trying to reclaim its natural route.

Ten years of state funding directed at salmon recovery has netted a lot of improved salmon habitat, but most salmon populations still lag well beyond targeted recovery levels, a leader in the efforts said this week.

The building is so “green,” dignitaries will carpool to its groundbreaking this week.

Antonio Carrillo knew exactly where he would plant his Douglas fir.