From Capitol Hill to downtown Sebastopol, people are finally talking seriously about climate change and clean energy legislation.

Peter Oliver (left)  is the co-owner of Make Mine Electric one of the five businesses currently incubating at the new Blue Sky Center in Sebatopol (shown below). In this audio clip, he explains the two-pronged business model he and partner Brain Hall are rolling out there.

As a demonstration of his company's electric vehicle conversion capabilities,  Oliver drives the red replica Porsche 356 seen below, which is now powered by batteries and an electric motor rather than gasoline.

Even as progressives debate the policy details embedded in the federal energy bills under consideration in Congress, Barry Vesser (right) remains hopeful that some members of the minority party there will also be able to find reasons to support the new measures.

For a more thorough explanation of the relative benefits and drawback of "Cap and Trade" versus "Cap and Dividend" legislation, click on the artwork to link to a downloadable booklet.

The North Bay is finally on its way to getting passenger rail service rolling again. But what if it used solar and hydrogen fuel cell technology to be non-polluting and carbon-free?

This artist's conception of a future Sun Train was drawn by David Vasquez, who used it as the cover illustration for his book, Mr. Swan's Big Idea, which details and sets out a case for this forward-looking  update of passeger rail travel. He notes that building a new rail system is an expensive undertaking, but Vasquez urges putting the costs into perspective by comparing them highway construction.

America has a proud history of rail service reaching back more than a century, notes David Vasquez (right), but much of that has been forgotten as other modes of transportation took precedence.

Mr. Swan's Big Idea  is built on the concepts developed by architect and rail advocate Christopher Swann (left) , whose on recent book, Electric Water, concentrates on his vision of a future hydrogen-based economy.

  David Vasquez will present a multi-media slideshow about the Sun Train concept at Aqus Cafe in Petaluma , on Wednesday, April 22, 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

Sonoma County's main dump, seen from the air at left,  has been closed since 2005, but its future continues to be hotly debated.

Operating a landfill anywhere in northern California is a difficult prospect in today's regulatory climate, observes Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, and even a well-funded private company must surmount those obstacles.

A proposed Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for Sonoma County could eventually be able to sort out and reuse as much as 90% of the region's waste stream. Alan Strachan, one of the backers of that project, suggests that through composting or other processes, even most of the remaining 10% could someday be reused.

Longtime recycling advocate Mike Anderson is one of many voices taking up the call for setting a goal of zero waste.

 The March 30th forum on the future of the Sonoma County landfill was co-hosted by the Climate Protection Campaign and the  Leadership Institute on Ecology nd the Economy.

The entire public forum was recorded and will be broadcast at the following times on Community Media Channel 26 in Santa Rosa:

 More information and background about Ecoleader .

To learn more about the Landfill.

A Sebastopol-based non-profit has gotten a big boost from the MacArthur Foundation.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the Conservation Strategy Fund  $400,000  over the next three years in support of their efforts to build natural resource economics skills to sustain biodiversity conservation in the Southern Tropical Andes, an area that spans southeastern Peru and northern Bolivia.

John Reid is the founder and president of the 10 year old Conservation Strategy Fun. The North Bay Report previously focused on CFS in December of last year.