Regional news roundup:
Beyond the Border 
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2013 Summit:
 
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for the 2013 Annual 
PNWER Summit
July 14 - 18, 2013
Anchorage, Alaska

PNWER is hosting its 23rd Annual Summit in Alaska July 14-19, 2013.

View the draft agenda here, but check back at the Summit homepage in the coming weeks as speakers and sessions are confirmed. 


Click here to book your accommodations.
 
Book your hotel early! PNWER is visiting during the peak of Alaska tourism season. Don't miss out!

Mark your calendar, and plan to join us for what will be a very informative Summit on key issues including
  • Energy
  • Transportation
  • Disaster Resilience
  • Arctic Issues
  • Agriculture and Livestock Health
  • Workforce Development
  • Tourism
  • Natural Gas Vehicles
  • Innovation
  • Invasive Species
  • Mining
  • Border Issues 
Bring your whole family along for a memorable Alaskan vacation, and join more than 600 business
leaders, legislators and government leaders from PNWER's 10 states, provinces and territories to address the major policy issues impacting the region.  
 
Summer is the best time to visit Anchorage, Alaska!
 
For more information please visit:  www.pnwer.org/2013Summit


'Report card' of Beyond the Border released
U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a progress report on Feb. 13, 2013 identifying specific items of the Beyond the Border Action Plan which have been implemented to date. To view it, click here
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Beyond the Border Progress to Date and Plans for 2013
U.S. Chamber of Commerce

On February 4, 2013 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC, held an update regarding the status of the Beyonder the Border Action Plan and the Regulatory Cooperation Council.  Click here to download a PowerPoint from this event on the progress of the BtB and the RCC.
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'Keep pursuing Canadian border reforms' by Don Alper, Professor and Director of the Border Policy Research Institute, WWU 

Guest Opinion, Puget Sound Business Journal

 

A report card was issued in December on the yearlong progress of the new Beyond the Border Action Plan, announced by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama on Dec. 7, 2011. The plan was designed to streamline border crossings for people and freight by moving clearance and inspection operations away from the border. Has progress been made, and what does it mean for our state and region? (Read more)...

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U.S. budget woes could hit Beyond the Border project

CBS News

 

The dreaded S-word - sequestration - loomed over a Canada-U.S. conference on Beyond the Border initiatives Monday as an American official acknowledged U.S. budget woes were slowing progress on a host of fronts. "It is fair to say we are facing some very difficult budget constraints," Ana Hinojosa, a director at U.S. Customs and Border Protection and a member of the Beyond the Border Initiative, told the meeting. (Read more)...

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Senators call for less tariffs to help close the Canada-U.S. price gap

Macleans

 

The federal government needs to launch a comprehensive review of its tariff policy to help bridge a yawning price gap between Canadian and American retail prices, a Senate committee said Wednesday. After studying the issue for eight months, the Senate finance committee said tariffs on consumer imports are not the only, or even major, reason for the price differential, but they are a significant factor and one that government can do something about. (Read more).....

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'CSIS Hemisphere Focus: Recommendations for a New Administration: Weed and Lead with Canada'

by Christopher Sands

 

Canada is the United States' largest economic partner, with more than $1 million in trade per minute crossing the border every year. Canada is a security partner and close ally whose young men and women have marched alongside ours from the battlefields of Korea to Afghanistan. (Read more)... 

 

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Wilson Center - Canada Institute: Changing Energy: Canada and the United States 

by David Biette and Andrew Finn

 

Americans are generally surprised to learn that more of the energy that the United States imports comes from Canada than from any other country. Really, you say? The United States imports 2.7 million barrels of crude oil and refined products from Canada every day, representing 24 percent of total petroleum imports-about twice what is imported from Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 20 percent of the uranium used in U.S. nuclear power plants comes from Canada.
And of the natural gas that the United States does import, 90 percent of it comes from Canada, which is 13 percent of U.S. natural gas consumption. The two countries' electricity grid is deeply integrated, with all border states connected to a Canadian province. Hydroelectric power from Quebec, British Columbia, and Manitoba is already used to power well over a million homes in
the United States. (Read more)...

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