Search Results
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Two Big Wins for The Thin Green Line, And A Promising 2021
Denials for Kalama and Jordan Cove fossil fuel projects hold the PNW’s thin green line as Biden’s climate-focused administration takes over.Read more » -
Listen In: Policymaking in a Pandemic
This week, I joined KBOO Community Radio‘s Barbara Bernstein for a wide-ranging conversation about how the coronavirus pandemic shapes our policymaking and may change our calculations about climate change. We talked about the profound challenges of the crisis, as well as the way it presents new opportunities for important policies like voting by mail and universal basic income. We discussed what the collapse of oil prices means for the struggling fossil...Read more » -
How the Market Collapse is Impacting Northwest Fossil Fuel Companies
Global markets are in a steep week-and-half long slide, with major US indices plummeting during some of the worst sell-offs in history. Fossil fuel companies felt the greatest financial pain when two shocks hit almost simultaneously: worldwide fears of the coronavirus leading to reduced consumer demand and a price war between major oil-producing countries. It is too early to say what any of this will mean for the Northwest’s fossil...Read more » -
2019 Was the Year That Fracking Fell Apart
If you’re desperate for good news about climate change, it helps if you have a sense of schadenfreude. Probably the merriest fossil fuel stories of 2019 show the fracking industry on the verge of a meltdown. Despite a raft of accounting gimmicks, the industry wasn’t able to hide the fact that it was drowning in red ink. By mid-year, Sightline’s Clark Williams-Derry reported that: A cross-section of 29 fracking-focused oil...Read more » -
Listen In: New Audio Documentary ‘Holding the Thin Green Line’
Because of its location, the Pacific Northwest plays an outsize role in determining the planet’s climate future. Squarely between voracious energy markets in Asia and massive fuel deposits in the interior of North America, the region of Cascadia is on the front lines of determining whether we’ll continue our dependence on fossil fuels or transition to carbon-zero energy. A new KBOO audio documentary, “Holding the Thin Green Line,” by Barbara...Read more » -
Should Northwest Cities Ban Fracked Gas in New Buildings?
There’s little debate that the global climate cannot afford to keep burning fossil fuels for decades to come. Yet even in North America’s most climate-enlightened precincts, there’s a ferocious debate about how to stop making the problem worse. Witness Seattle, where city councilmember Mike O’Brien recently attempted to outlaw gas installations in new buildings (except restaurants). He was met with a flood of opposition so overwhelming that the bill is...Read more » -
Small Seattle Pipeline Expansion would mean Big Carbon Pollution Increase
The slow-motion battle expanding a six-mile pipeline in suburban Seattle might seem like small potatoes, but it’s Exhibit A in the fracked gas industry’s new playbook. Rather than roll out mega-project proposals sure to garner coordinated opposition, the gas industry now favors smaller, piecemeal projects that can avoid critical review. The western Washington gas utility Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is notoriously effective at deploying this strategy, from its heel-dragging on...Read more » -
Calling Natural Gas a ‘Bridge Fuel’ Is Alarmingly Deceptive
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Studying Full Methane Life Cycle Critical to PNW Climate Policy
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King County Poised to Lock Out Fossil Fuels
Update: The King County Council voted 6-2 to support the moratorium. King County is poised to join the ranks of Northwest communities that are locking out coal, oil, and gas developments. Later this month, County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove will introduce legislation to prohibit major new fossil fuel infrastructure, including gas pipeline expansions. It’s the right time for King County to act. Over the last decade, Northwest communities have faced down...Read more »