Just when you thought you could rest easy on the heels of good news…well, you can’t. Sorry.

The nation added 80,000 jobs in October, the 13th consecutive month of job gains. Yet despite this morsel of optimism, according to Tim Duy of the , Oregon has a greater than 50 percent chance of going back into a recession by early next year.

Average hourly wages across the country rose five cents to $25.19, the number of long-term unemployed people fell 366,000 and the unemployment rate dropped slightly from 9.1 percent to 9.0 percent according to the

“Overall, while this report is not good enough, several key numbers are now moving in the right direction,” Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics, said in the Port.

The Oregon Economic Forum’s shows that in the past six months, the composite of sectors that are represented in the Index have faltered, dropping 5.8 percent points.

, the biggest factor in the potential recession is the ongoing financial instability in Europe coupled with the weak housing market and their impacts on our already dampened economy. The good news? Duy says that because we’re already so depressed, the recession will seem mild in comparison to the Great Recession. Yahoo!

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New Jersey-based wave energy company is one step closer to dropping 10 power-generating buoys off the Oregon Coast near Reedsport.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced on Wednesday that it recommends granting Section 401 certification for what would be (Section 401 certification is required as part of the federal Clean Water Act to make sure federally approved activities meet water quality standards). by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and it is scheduled to go in the ocean next summer.

The first buoy is “just floating as a test buoy,” said Marilyn Fonseca with the DEQ water quality division, because of concerns surrounding the project. For instance, some fear that migrating gray whales may injure themselves on the buoys’ transmission lines.

The test buoy only requires a permit from the corps, but the other nine buoys for corps and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval to install them and connect them to the grid.

Each buoy should produce a maximum of 150 kilowatts, and the 10 buoys together should produce enough power for roughly 395 homes. The permit application will also allow the site to be expanded to produce up to 50 megawatts in the future.

A public forum will be held to discuss the proposed approval later this month. Public commentary can affect whether the buoys get the certification. A formal public comment period started Oct. 11 and continues through Nov. 14.

Where: Reedsport City Hall, 451 Winchester Ave., in Reedsport
When: 6 p.m., Oct. 25, 2011

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The United States Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it would fast track the permitting and construction of seven pilot power transmission line projects, including two in Oregon.

The Boardman-Hemingway line and the Cascade Crossing Transmission Project will connect the Willamette Valley to Southwest Idaho. The move would create thousands of jobs and upgrade the nation’s power transmission infrastructure. Cascade Crossing is expected to generate 450 jobs and Boardman-Hemingway is expected to create 500.

Because of the multi-state nature of the projects wherein numerous players are involved in assuring that environmental, social and economic factors are addressed before construction can take place, permitting such projects can be time consuming and onerous.  According to the , no fewer than nine federal agencies are involved in permitting these projects. To expedite the process, the Obama administration recently formed the to streamline inter-agency cooperation.

Nancy Suttle, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, remarked on Wednesday:

The President wants to get America working again.  He is committed to cutting red tape and making immediate investments to put people to work modernizing our roads, bridges, airports, and energy systems.”

With the nation’s infrastructure in a bad state and thousands of construction industry workers out of work, this is great news indeed.

courtesy of Boardman to Hemingway Transmission Line Project

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The Bonneville Power Administration announced on Friday that it will start construction on a $185 million power transmission line that will run from the The Dalles north to the Goldendale, Wash. The project will be funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The 28-mile, 500 Kilovolt is expected to create 100 construction jobs and help the BPA handle future expansion of wind turbine energy production in the area. Lauren Azar, senior advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, that:

By integrating renewable energy sources onto the electrical grid now, we are helping to develop a new American economy powered by clean, secure and affordable energy sources.”

But the announcement of the Big Eddy-Knight line construction came days after a number of wind farm projects were stalled in Washington, a move that stopped preconstruction work on the $91 million transmission that will run from the very southeast of Washington to the Walla Walla, Wash., area. Though the region’s power transmission lines have been strained in the past decade by the added power production from wind farms, the industry still seems to be beset by logistical hurdles.

by McD22 via Flicker

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The city of Portland recently released a report that details a number of Portland’s modern historic buildings, properties built between 1945 and 1985 in downtown and inner east Portland. The selective survey documents 152 out of a potential 976 historically significant properties in an effort to provide baseline data for future land-use policy decisions.

Complied by Peter Meijer Architect  in collaboration with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office and the city of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the breaks down the age and architectural styles of the buildings surveyed. To the delight of Mad Men fans everywhere, it found that the lions share of the buildings (87 percent) fall in the modern period; the next most common style was Utilitarian.

The report breaks down the various districts in downtown and inner east Portland and contextualizes how the history of each respective district led to the current state of affairs. For instance, it details how the construction of the Interstate 405 bridge affected the Slabtown/Upshur area’s historic buildings.

A delight for the built environment wonk and developer alike, the report is a worthy read to better understand the formation of Portland in the past 76 years.

Photo by via Flickr

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Portland City Council voted yesterday to change the Portland Office of Emergency Management’s name to the Bureau of Emergency Management and to implement a new strategic plan for when all hell breaks loose sometime in the future.

The change in name and plans came from the results of that found the city to be woefully unprepared, with undefined roles and plans to effectively use minimal resources in the case of an emergency to deal with high priority problems. Mayor Sam Adams made this :

“This name transition reflects the stature and authority of the bureau. POEM, soon to be PBEM, is the city’s lead coordinator, the glue that holds together our emergency response and preparedness efforts. Bureau Director Carmen Merlo’s new strategic plan gives us a step-by-step understanding of those efforts through 2013.”

The on Wednesday calls for a close collaboration between local and state level governmental and private entities to best solve future disasters. It will also consider the long-term changes under the and how it will effect the city’s emergency preparedness. It also takes into account Portland’s greying population, non-English speaking populations and aging infrastructure among other factors when the city tackles future problems. For instance, experts predict that when the Cascadia fault line earthquake hits Portland – with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake expected – bridgetown’s bridges will collapse.

Though it has made positive changes for its emergency preparedness, the city recognizes that there are still many challenges ahead. For example, the city has not had to deal with regular, major disasters like some other parts of the country. How city plans to beat that complacency when disaster strikes remains to be seen.

by sanbeiji via Flickr

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As players in the Southwest invest tens of millions of dollars in brand new power lines to transmit electricity from the region’s burgeoning solar farms, utilities in the Northwest are left blowing in the wind.

According to the trade publication Engineering Record-News, 62 wind farm projects in southern Washington, totaling 3,000 megawatts, either to get service from the Bonneville Power Administration’s new transmission line.

In light of this, the BPA said it has stopped preliminary work on the $90 million project, called the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental Transmission Line. This news comes on the heels of an announcement by the BPA’s southwestern counterpart – Western Area Power Administration – to hire contractors to upgrade and build parts for a $91 transmission line to transport electricity for solar farms in the Southwest.

The wavering of the 62 wind farm projects hits the development of the Central Ferry-Lower Monumental transmission line hard; they account for roughly 24 percent of all projects requesting transmission service from the BPA since 2008. BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said in the ENR article that if the agency still thinks the power line is needed, it will reissue a request for pre-construction work and the power line could be operational by 2013 as originally intended.

by cellanr via Flickr

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Early construction of the Portland-Milwaukie light-rail project will begin this week with the cutting of 60 trees in downtown Portland. The trees, located along Southwest Lincoln Street between First and Fourth avenues, are being cut in order to make room for street widening that will allow for new construction such a light-rail station and bicycle lanes. A total of 780 trees are expected to be cut during construction of the light-rail project, but
Construction will take place between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. for three weeks, with street parking on Lincoln Street to be permanently removed.

At total of 40 trees will be planted along Lincoln Street. TriMet is in the process of procuring the remaining 1,960 trees with the idea that if the trees are purchased now for the last sections of the light-rail project, they will be more mature and healthier than saplings by the time they are planted in the next few years.

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The city will consider on Wednesday whether it will commit to owning  a share of the Oregon Sustainability Center. The building is expected to be one of the tallest “living buildings” in the world – that is it will create as much or more energy that it uses through an array of hyper-efficient components such as solar panels and rainwater catchment systems. The in addition to shared spaces of the LEED platinum rated flagship building. Part of the ownership agreement is that the city must  fund half of the $3 million architectural and engineering costs for the final design review of the .

Work on the $61.7 million center first began in 2007. Since then, the center has undergone changes to cut costs. The high-tech building is being developed by both the city and the Oregon University System and will be located on Southwest Fourth Avenue and Montgomery Street near Portland State University. It is expected to create 780 direct and indirect jobs.

The city council will also put forward a that will ensure that women, minority and emerging small business contractors will participate in the construction of the sustainability center.

When: 9:30 a.m.

Where: City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave.

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The Oregon National Guard will dedicate its new multimillion dollar reserve center today at a ceremony attended by foreign, military and local delegates.

Construction of the the 41 Division Armed Forces Reserve Center located at Camp Withycombe began in 2009 and cost $75 million dollars, $2.9 million of which came from the state of Oregon.

, it is the largest facility built by the Oregon National Guard.

Construction of the 250,000-square-foot facility, which houses 1,300 Oregon Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve Soldiers, created 1,200 jobs. The building was constructed by the design/build team at Oregon Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve Soldiers and Hoffman Construction.

When: 2 p.m. today

Where: 15300 N.E. Industrial Way, Clackamas

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