Week in review

Tuesday

Avista has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange to turn its greenhouse gas reduction efforts into a cash reward.

The exchange is based on trading what are called carbon credits, a free-market attempt that financially rewards businesses for cutting greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.

•More banks have tightened lending standards on home mortgages, the Federal Reserve said Monday in the latest sign of fallout from a spreading credit crisis. The Fed said many banks reported tighter standards for traditional prime mortgages, nontraditional mortgages such as “interest only” loans and subprime mortgages, those offered to borrowers with weak credit histories.

Wednesday

Itron Inc.’s chief financial officer exercised stock options that netted him $803,430 before taxes in the days leading up to the company’s disappointing third-quarter earnings report, but Itron said there are no insider trading concerns.

Thursday

A planned increase in Avista electricity customers’ monthly bills will be diminished if a settlement regarding benefits from power provided by the federal government’s Northwest dams holds together. The settlement would bring the increase in average monthly bills to $2.23 in Washington, and $3.03 in Idaho.

•General Motors Corp. posted a company record $39 billion loss Wednesday for the third quarter, as a charge involving unused tax credits brought an abrupt end to a string of three profitable quarters for the nation’s largest automaker.

The loss was one of the biggest quarterly corporate deficits ever. Standard & Poor’s downgraded GM shares from hold to sell, and said GM’s near-term outlook has worsened significantly in part due to reduced U.S. sales.

Friday

Washington’s economic development agency is moving staff from Olympia into other regions in an effort to better align state resources with local priorities. But the affected division of the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development already has two workers assigned to Eastern Washington, and the eight-county area isn’t slated to receive more, representatives said.

•NAC Architecture is building a $2.7 million addition to its headquarters in downtown Spokane.