All posts by Roy Hales

Transportation

Washington’s EV Development is Ready to Move Forward

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By Roy L Hales

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The 2009 “Green Highways bill” (HB 1481) opened the door for Washington state’s EV infrastructure. With the help of funding through the Federal Recovery Act, Governor Chris Gregoire announced construction of “the nation’s first true electrified highway” in June 2010. It was to stretch out along the 276 miles of the I-5, which connects to Oregon and Canada. None of this would have come into being if it were not for an active EV community. Yet in 2013 – the year there were more Teslas sold in Washington than any other state in America – things started stalling. The good news is that Washington’s EV development is ready to move forward. Will the state legislators make this possible?

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Energy

Unako: A House of their own

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By Roy L Hales

Kevin Edgecombe’s passion was enflamed ed during a trip to Nepal in 2009. His wife, Linda, was one of the Directors of IWEN (Intercultural Women’s Educational Network), a charity that rescues females from bonded labour and provides meaning to their lives through education. After seeing the extent to which the program liberated young women, he decided to get more involved. A builder by trade, it is only natural that he would come up with a program like “Classrooms for a Cause.” In 2012 he led a team of volunteers that built two classrooms at the Chainpur School in Godhawa, Nepal. Now he is building a 4,000 square foot multi-functional facility, called Unako House, in the Dang region of Nepal. The name Unako means “it’s hers” in Nepalese. The building will hold a community center, classroom, workshop, kitchen, large meeting room, two retail outlets and living quarters for a caretaker. Though the grid is very intermittent, there are excellent solar conditions. The building will be solar powered and truly Unako:  a house of their own.

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Environment, Indigenous Nations, Indigenous Nations History

Grace Islet: First Nations Burial Grounds are Sacred

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The British Columbia government has just decided that the Penelakut Tribe’s ancestral burial cairns on Grace Islet, on Salt Spring Island, can be desecrated.

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Transportation

A Call for Modernization of Metro Vancouver’s Infrastructure

By Roy L Hales

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Over a million people could into the Metro Vancouver area during the next three decades, adding another 600,000 automotive trips per day to the already congested roads. the existing infrastructure will not be adequate. The Mayors’ Council, of 23 mayors in the region, are calling for modernization of Metro Vancouver’s infrastructure.

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Rivers & Oceans

Salmon Farms face Multiple Legal Threats

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By Roy L Hales

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Alexandra Morton’s long awaited suit against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans opened in Vancouver today. Morton’s lawyer, Margot Venton, filed the suit after learning that fish allegedly infected with the piscine reovirus (PRV) had been transferred into an open-pen fish farm operated by Marine Harvest along the Fraser River sockeye migration. BC salmon farms face Multiple Legal Threats .

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