Nick Abraham
Nick Abraham, Sightline fellow, was born in the Midwest but is an adopted son of the Pacific Northwest. He has a disconcerting love for digging through public records, financial data, and energy stats and pulling out relatable stories. Nick graduated from Western Washington University with a dual degree in Economics and Environmental Studies and will always have a Bellingham-sized hole in his heart for the northern Washington town. He is now the editor and lead contributor of Oil Check Northwest, a watchdog group focused on oil and coal’s influence in the region. If he isn’t in the back of a Seattle or Portland coffee shop digging through oily donation records, you'll find him in search of his lifelong mission, finding the world’s best gumbo.
SwatchJunkies
SwatchJunkies
Green PR Firm Secretly Working for Oil and Petrochemical Industry
Consulting firm EnviroIssues is a longstanding fixture of the Northwest’s sustainability community. Known mostly for its work with local governments, ...
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Public Comment Period for Tesoro’s Anacortes Xylene Facility Closes April 15
Here’s the latest in a string of petrochemical developments across the Northwest: the oil company Tesoro plans to spend $400 ...
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Too Soon to Celebrate the Demise of Jordan Cove LNG
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Oil Check Northwest. It it reprinted here with permission. Earlier this month, in a ...
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Two Northwest Oil Train Projects Flop
In the first month of 2016, a pair of fledgling oil-by-rail projects abruptly collapsed in Oregon and Washington. One on ...
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Here Are All the Northwest Cities, Governments, and Organizations That Oppose Oil Trains
Editor’s note: This article is cross-posted with permission from Oil Check Northwest. Across the Pacific Northwest, residents are talking about ...
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Oil and Coal’s $20 Million Campaign for Influence in the Northwest
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at Oil Check Northwest and is republished here with the editor’s permission. Oil ...
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Port Commissioner: The Race We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore
As election results continue to filter in, most eyes focus on the big-ticket races—city council members, state ballot measures, and ...
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The Oil Industry’s California Playbook
Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared on Oil Check Northwest. Last week, after intense lobbying from the ...
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How Money Gets into Our Politicians’ Pockets
Editor’s Note September 2016: Washington state’s democracy reform initiative, which aims to put everyday people back in control of government, is swinging into ...
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Shell’s Rig is Headed to Portland
Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s second largest company, wants to find oil under the seabed off the coast of Alaska. After a disastrous attempt at Arctic drilling in 2012, the company has returned this summer to once again try to drill exploratory wells. But just like before, they’ve hit a major snag. Shell’s MSV Fennica icebreaker vessel isn’t pointed north. Instead it’s headed to Portland’s shipyard for repairs to a 39 inch gash in its hull. Most observers expect it to arrive within the week. The ship was on its way to support Shell’s drilling fleet as the company commences putting in two exploratory wells 70 miles off the coast of Alaska. The Chukchi Sea’s icy waters make it far too dangerous to drill without icebreaker ships in support.
When Shell comes to town things can get messy in a hurry.
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How Shell Manipulates Washington State Politics
Yesterday afternoon, Shell Oil’s titanic drilling rig made its way into the Port of Seattle where it will undergo repairs before heading north to drill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s north coast this summer. After local maritime company Foss inked a secretive lease with the Port to repair two of Shell’s skyscraper-sized oil drilling rigs, the region has been embroiled in a raging controversy over the wisdom of allowing the second largest company in the world to use Seattle as a staging ground for Arctic oil drilling. Shell’s last run at Arctic oil was a signal failure when the company’s flagship Kulluk drilling rig ran aground near Alaska's Kodiak Island. Shell plans to return to the precarious Arctic seas this summer for another try at tapping the oil reserves.
And in Skagit County, Shell has plans to build a large oil train facility at its Anacortes Refinery. After the county hearing examiner recently determined that the company should conduct a full environmental review of the project, Shell sued the county. The case will be heard this month.
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Coal, Oil, and Gas Spent $2 Million on Oregon Politics in 2014
The last few months have been a wild ride in Oregon politics. Governor Kitzhaber, the state’s only Governor to serve four terms, resigned amid allegations of ethical violations. Then, over vociferous opposition from the oil industry, the state legislature almost immediately lifted a sunset provision on the state’s first clean fuels standard, one of the first bills signed by newly inaugurated Governor Kate Brown.
Many observers now believe that Oregon’s lopsided Democratic majority is positioned to ramp up renewable electricity standards and perhaps even enact a price on carbon emissions in the next legislative session. These are meaningful changes to law that would have a tremendous impact on the state’s pollution levels for decades to come by reducing fossil fuel consumption.
Needless to say, these reforms are not well liked by the coal, oil, and gas industries that benefit from business as usual. In an attempt to tip the scales in their favor, they injected nearly $2 million---$1,972,783, to be precise---into Oregon’s political system in the most recent election cycle.
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