Portland’s Scooter Tax Is Super High, and That’s Fine
Over-regulating this alternative to driving is a bigger risk than overtaxing it.
Region: Oregon
The Latest on the ‘Trial of the Century’ and Other Courtroom Showdowns
Litigation has long played a critical role in the US environmental movement. Lawsuits can be especially useful to counter foot-dragging from our political institutions, forcing them to comply with the law—or even spurring action to improve existing legal protections. So it’s not surprising that the courts have been at the center of a number of … Read more
Three Steps to Better Climate Conversations
Esteemed climate communicator Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is back on the lecture circuit with a new talk, which I was lucky enough to catch at the University of Washington in mid-May. Dr. Hayhoe’s life and credentials make her uniquely suited to bridge divides and speak from the heart about climate science: She’s a Canadian expat in … Read more
What Consumes More Gas than Many of Cascadia’s Cities Combined?
The methanol refinery proposed for Kalama, Washington, is, by any measure, a goliath. On the banks of the Columbia River in southwest Washington, the project’s backers aim to build a petrochemical plant to convert natural gas, much of it fracked, into liquid methanol for export to China’s plastics industry and vehicle fleet. Operating the facility at … Read more
Weekend Reading 6/29/2018
Alan Durning This brilliant piece strikingly illustrates how building more homes—of all shapes and sizes—is a solution to our climate-changing cities’ problems, and also to our surging homelessness problems, and our deepening economic apartheid problems, and our traffic congestion problems, and our racial inequality problems, and our opioid abuse problems, and our access to job … Read more
Listen In: KEXP and KBOO Highlight the Thin Green Line
In the wake of Canada’s fiscally irresponsible and environmentally unsound Trans Mountain Pipeline purchase from Kinder Morgan, Sightline programs director Eric de Place and Sightline researcher Tarika Powell shared their expertise with radio stations KEXP and KBOO in recent weeks about various aspects of the ongoing Thin Green Line movement. In his KEXP appearance, Eric … Read more
Listen In: ‘The Hartmann Report’ on Proportional Representation
Senior researcher Kristin Eberhard was a guest on “The Hartmann Report” on June 8, talking about proportional representation. Kristin and guest host Jefferson Smith discussed the benefits of multi-winner districts, including how it would effectively combat gerrymandering. Listen in the embedded player below. Kristin’s segment begins roughly at the 31:40 mark and runs through the … Read more
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home by Now: How Neighborhoods Can Kick Car Habits
Adding small homes helps neighborhoods subtract driving.
The Voting System Democrats and Republicans Are Afraid Of
Maine Governor Paul LePage called ranked voting “the most horrific thing in the world” and said he would not certify Maine’s primary election, which used ranked ballots. In a world that includes genocide and poverty, not to mention deep fried twinkies, what could make LePage call ranked choice voting “the most horrific thing”? Well, ranked choice voting would have forced LePage … Read more
The Supreme Court Just Reminded Us—Americans Don’t Have the Right to Vote
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a stunning but predictable decision in Husted v. Randolph, the case about the state of Ohio purging thousands of voters from the voter rolls. Stunning because it gives state legislatures unprecedented powers to prevent eligible voters from voting. Predictable because, contrary to popular assumption, the … Read more