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Sightline Testifies at Hearing for Tacoma LNG Protesters
Editor’s note: Watch the testimony provided by researcher Tarika Powell last month in the February 20 pre-trial hearing at the end of this article. Stephen Way, 72, and Carlo Voli, 52, paddled to the Tacoma LNG construction site at the Port of Tacoma before dawn last December 11, and locked themselves to a construction crane around 7 a.m. The two activists, who are affiliated with 350 Tacoma, a grassroots organizing...Read more » -
Video: LNG Is Heading to Tacoma. There’s Still Time to Stop It
Sightline senior research associate Tarika Powell joined Tom Layson on KBTC‘s Emmy-winning Northwest Now program last week, along with RedLine Tacoma co-founder Claudia Riedener and South Sound resident Bill Kupinse. Together, they take a critical look at the $300 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility that is proposed for the Tacoma tide flats and answer frequently asked questions: Why didn’t the public know about Tacoma LNG? How far along is the project? What are...Read more » -
Event: Tacoma’s Proposed LNG Project
Tacoma may soon be home to a $275 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility. Where does the project currently stand and what will it mean for the surrounding community? Next Thursday, join Sightline senior research associate Tarika Powell for a community information session about this proposed LNG project. Bring a friend and a few questions to ask during the Q&A session. In the meantime, learn more about the safety concerns and environmental impacts of...Read more » -
Tacoma’s Proposed LNG Plant Raises Safety Concerns
Editor’s note: The graphic “Purpose of Proposed Tacoma LNG Facility” was updated 11/22/2017 to most accurately reflect language of source material. Puget Sound Energy (PSE), a regional utility, plans to build a multifarious liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Tacoma. The plant won the second of two leases the Tacoma Port Commission recently signed with companies promising to bring “clean energy” projects to the city. The other, now cancelled, was for a...Read more » -
New Trump Administration Rule Allows LNG Rail Shipments
Environmental groups, communities, and states are trying to stop potentially explosive LNG rail shipments after new Trump administration rule loosening.Read more » -
Tacoma City Council Votes Tuesday on Tideflats Land-Use Moratorium
Editor’s note: this piece originally published Oct. 10. Since then, Tacoma City Council heard public comment from more than 81 people and got more than 200 written comments. The council is set to vote on an amended ordinance Tuesday, Nov. 13, to extend the current land-use rules by six months. The below information outlines what’s at stake for the Tacoma Tideflats and the surrounding communities. Tacoma, long a center of...Read more » -
Tacoma City Council Facing Critical Crossroads for Tideflats Land-Use
Tacoma, long a center of heavy industry, is heir to a proud working-class legacy—and to enduring pollution. In particular, the city’s industrial port area, known as the Tideflats, is no stranger to dirty energy proposals. It was targeted in recent years for a large-scale petrochemical refinery, a fracked gas liquefaction center, oil trains, and more. Despite considerable progress by local leaders and ordinary residents alike, the city remains among the...Read more » -
Who Should Pay for Tacoma’s Last Big Cleanup?
There’s a modern-day monster lurking under Tacoma’s industrial lands. Mixed in with the groundwater is a stew of pollution from a shuttered chemical plant: PCBs—toxic chemicals the EPA banned in 1979—and volatile organic chemicals so alkaline that it’s actually stronger than drain cleaner and, according to the company responsible, is actually dissolving rocks into jelly. The core plume of toxic chemicals under the Tacoma tideflats is as tall as the...Read more » -
How Industry and Regulators Kept Public in the Dark After 2014 LNG Explosion in Washington
Nearly two years ago, an explosion and massive gas leak at a liquid natural gas (LNG) facility in Plymouth, Washington, thirty miles south of the Tri-Cities, injured five workers and forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. To this day, state and federal oversight agencies have not published the findings of their investigations into the accident, and the facts about what happened are almost completely unknown to the public. Sightline’s...Read more » -
Tacoma Steering into Uncertain Waters
Tacoma may soon be home to the Northwest’s next liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, with a $275 million plant positioned to move forward after the City of Tacoma published the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in October 2015. Most observers have treated the project as a done deal, but the FEIS contains some alarming oversights. Specifically, it fails to specify the demand the facility will place on the region’s...Read more »