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Cascadia Scorecard News - October 2008

Cap and trade for dummies; I-985; Sightline's in Fashion; best of the blog.

Climate Policy for Everybody

It wasn't about the election or the financial markets, but something happened last week that was arguably just as important to Cascadia's future.

On September 23, a coalition of seven states and four provinces--the Western Climate Initiative--released recommendations for a market-based system aimed at slashing global-warming pollution and jumpstarting a regional green economy.

The stakes are high. If adopted, this regional cap-and-trade program will be the largest carbon market in North America. And if designed right, it could help us break through to a clean-energy economy that ends our addiction to oil and other dirty fossil fuels once and for all.

How to design it right? Sightline has been addressing this question since the beginning of the WCI process, working closely with advocates and decisonmakers on how to craft effective and fair climate policy for the region. To inform the unfolding debate, we've now packaged our best climate research into a climate policy primer called "Cap and Trade 101." Sightline’s "Cap and Trade 101" sorts out the details of effective policy and answers the tough questions, such as:

Cap and trade for dummies: How it works
What happens to energy prices?
How to build in protections for working families
Four ways to make sure cap-and-trade funds go to local economies

Smart climate policy can point our region in the right direction, creating jobs and new opportunities for all. That's why we're putting this primer in the hands of the most influential northwesterners--elected officials, journalists, and you. Please pass it on to decisionmakers in your community.

Download "Cap and Trade 101"

Read Sightline's take on the WCI recommendations

More from Sightline

Bad for Traffic, Transit, and Schools: Washington’s I-985
Another key Sightline research project this fall is to analyze the claims of Washington State's Initiative 985. The so-called "reduce traffic initiative," we're finding, would actually increase traffic, slow transit, and redirect hundreds of millions of dollars from the state general fund--which pays for public schools, among other things--to highway expansion in greater Seattle. Read our new report on why the Initiative is a bad deal for eastern and central Washington. Coming soon: What I-985 would do to Puget Sound traffic.

Sightline in Fashion (& Style)
In recent months, Sightline has informed numerous articles on the unfolding story of regional climate policy, from P-I and Oregonian stories to a radio piece broadcast across the Northwest. In a more surprising placement, Sightline research director Clark Williams-Derry ended up in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times last week, cited in an article on power-generating gyms.