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Here at Sightline, we’re enamored of good visuals–especially maps that tell stories. So I was pleased to find a terrific interactive map published by Save Our Wild Salmon. Scrolling across features in the Columbia-Snake River basin, users learn the story of salmon conservation. I’m not just talking about pop-up windows that describe the dams and wilderness areas (it has those too). I’m talking about clickable icons that activate movie clips....

Note: This is part of a series. Washington’s Initiative 933. Montana’s Initiative 154. Idaho’s “Property Rights Protection.” All three 2006 ballot initiatives are modeled on Oregon’s Measure 37—a prototype pay-or-waive scheme aimed to eliminate most land-use laws. Last week, I wrote about claims made in Oregon under Measure 37. The claims are often pricey, sometimes absurdly so, and governments simply waive land-use restrictions for claimants because there’s no (taxpayer) money...

Note: This is part of a series. As I mentioned last week, I’ll be writing a series of posts about the struggle over property rights that is perhaps the single biggest environmental controversy in the Northwest. I was planning to build on last week’s question when I was sidetracked by every researcher’s best friend and worst enemy: data! Data, specifically, from Oregon, where property owners are currently making claims under...

Finally, just the kind of article I’ve been waiting to read about economic trends: “Why Does a Good Economy Not Feel That Way?” But first, I do have a beef with the article, or at least the headline writer. In the face of so much economic bad news (as we’ll see in a moment), how is it accurate to write that a “good economy” doesn’t “feel good”? Language matters, I...

Note: This is part of a series. The defining environmental controversy of the early 21st century in the Northwest states may well turn out to be the debate over property rights. What should property owners be allowed to do on their land? When is regulation appropriate? And how much is too much? Should property owners be compensated when regulations affect them? And what about compensation for neighbors and community when...

Splashed alloverpageone today: the US economy shows strong growth. (And by “economy”, of course, the media actually mean GDP plain and simple.) But do the GDP numbers lie? Readers of this blog probably know we’re abittouchy on this subject. Today, I’ll spare you my ranting and pull a quote from Ezra Klein at Tapped: ,,,macro data tells you very little about the economic experience of most folks, which accounts for...

In NEW’s seven-city study of Northwest cities and sprawl—part of our Cascadia Scorecard project—Boise ranked worst. What’s heartening is that many Boise community leaders, members of the media, and advocates in Idaho are bent on doing something about it. An Idaho Statesman editorial this weekend—which cited our energy and sprawl research extensively—laments the city’s smart-growth record and notes the strong connection between Idaho’s sprawl and energy habits. (Idaho also consumes...

In a recent post, I mentioned that the U.S. economy is highly energy-intensive. That is, the energy used to produce $1 of wealth in America can produce $2 in Germany and nearly $3 in Japan. So, all else being equal, high oil prices take a heavier toll on the U.S. economy than in more energy-efficient countries, simply because we need more energy to do business. (By the way, oil prices...