For nearly a decade, the Northwest has been under siege from the fossil fuel industry. Along the sliver of coast from Coos Bay, Oregon to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, energy companies have proposed building coal export terminals, oil-by-rail transfer depots, petrochemical refineries, gas export sites, and more in dozens of locations. As a matter of … Read more
The small Columbia River town of Kalama, Washington is home to one of the most hotly-contested energy projects in the Northwest. A Chinese government-backed company aims to build an outsized petrochemical refinery there that would process large quantities of natural gas into liquid methanol for export to China. Since its initial proposal, a welter of … Read more
For the first time since 1950, the US Census Bureau is planning to ask people if they are citizens in 2020. Though the Trump Justice Department claims this question will help protect minority populations, most likely it will have the opposite effect. If immigrants avoid answering the census for fear of being targeted by Immigration … Read more
Earlier this month, Sightline Director of Strategic Communication Anna Fahey comprehensively showed how natural gas has been able to maintain its dirty secret, thanks in part to the mainstream press continually repeating the industry’s talking points with nary a question. Public News Service picked up on the piece and produced a segment on its website. … Read more
In a surprise Sunday afternoon announcement, the company backing a huge oil pipeline proposal in British Columbia cried uncle. Citing conflicts between the Canadian government, which supports the project, and British Columbia (plus other local governments), which vehemently oppose it, Kinder Morgan said it would stop spending any money to advance the project. Or at … Read more
Coverage of natural gas, even in the most serious mainstream press, too often reads like it’s lifted from the fossil fuel industry playbook. “Natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil.” You’ve heard this so many times that it honestly just seems, well, natural. The point is, an industry with profit on the line has … Read more
Editor’s note: Late last month, the necessity defense appeared to have reached a milestone when a judge in Massachusetts found 13 pipeline protesters not guilty after they testified that civil disobedience was the only reasonable alternative to prevent imminent harm, locally and globally. The 13 activists were arrested, along with close to 200 other participants, in … Read more
Editor’s note: This article is an extended version of an op-ed titled “We can’t trust the autonomous-car industry to self-regulate” that ran in the Seattle Times on March 28. Electric robo-taxis hold great promise for solving the Puget Sound region’s urban transportation problems but not without the right public policies, including objective standards for vehicle … Read more
“This is more fun than I’ve ever had in my life.” That’s how activist Don Steinke summed up his tireless work opposing a giant oil train terminal on the Columbia River to reporters. His enthusiasm has been contagious: communities all around the Northwest have been chalking up big wins against big oil. Stopping oil trains … Read more
This is part three in a four article series about how voters respond to ranked ballots and proportional voting systems. You can read the other articles in this series here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4. This article was also updated and revised from an earlier version for clarity. Would switching from a familiar … Read more