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Collection: Thin Green Line Activism

“We in the Pacific Northwest Have a Choice”

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“There is this very unique place on Earth, the Pacific Northwest. It’s either about to become steamrolled by coal and oil heading from North America to foreign shores, or it is going to stand up in an opposition movement and prevent those projects from happening.” Those are the words of Sightline senior policy director Eric … Read more

Who Should Pay for Tacoma’s Last Big Cleanup?

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There’s a modern-day monster lurking under Tacoma’s industrial lands. Mixed in with the groundwater is a stew of pollution from a shuttered chemical plant: PCBs—toxic chemicals the EPA banned in 1979—and volatile organic chemicals so alkaline that it’s actually stronger than drain cleaner and, according to the company responsible, is actually dissolving rocks into jelly. … Read more

Fighting Fossil Fuels at the Local Level

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As the Trump Administration looks to new federal energy policy, state and local authority, especially the power of regulating land use, will likely play an increasingly important role in protecting regions like the Northwest from the risks of coal, oil, and gas. Indeed, threatened by a tsunami of energy export projects, a number of cities and … Read more

How Northwest Communities Are Stopping Fossil Fuel Projects Before They Start

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In the final weeks of 2016, Portland moved to the forefront of the Thin Green Line—the Northwest’s opposition movement to coal, oil, and gas exports—when its city council voted unanimously to prohibit building new fossil fuel infrastructure in the city. The vote is likely the most aggressive anti-fossil fuel move by any government in North … Read more

The Thin Green Line: Victories and Challenges

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Want to catch up with the latest Thin Green Line news but don’t have time to sit down and read our recent articles? Don’t fret! You can listen on the go. Sightline policy director Eric de Place and research fellow Nick Abraham gave an update on the Thin Green Line on KBOO radio, a community radio station … Read more

Here Are All the Northwest Cities, Governments, and Organizations That Oppose Oil Trains

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Editor’s note: This article is cross-posted with permission from Oil Check Northwest. Across the Pacific Northwest, residents are talking about the growing risks from oil train traffic in their communities. The numerous derailments and fiery disasters since oil-by-rail became the go-to form of transportation for Bakken shale oil has many speaking out about concerns for public safety … Read more

Sightline to Testify in Trial of the Delta 5

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Editor’s note 1/14/16: See KING 5’s video coverage of the trial, including testimony from Eric de Place, here. Update 1/15/16: The Delta 5 have been declared not guilty on the obstruction of train charge, meaning there can be no claim of financial harm for restitution. They have been declared guilty only of trespass. The states … Read more

The Thin Green Line Is Stopping Coal and Oil in Their Tracks

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[prettyquote align=”right”]”Everybody outside the Northwest thinks that’s where energy projects go to die.”[/prettyquote]

“Everybody outside the Northwest thinks that’s where energy projects go to die.” That’s the reputation our region has earned as an increasing number of proposed coal and oil export projects have encountered ferocious opposition. It’s what the backer of a proposed oil refinery in Longview, Washington, told reporters earlier this year after his company’s stealth proposal was outed by environmental groups.

The Cascadia region has proven to be extraordinarily challenging for those who would turn it into a major carbon energy export hub—so much so that Sightline has taken to calling it the Thin Green Line.

Since 2012, a staggering number of schemes have proposed to move large volumes of carbon-intense fuels through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to Asian markets. A recent Sightline analysis shows that proposed and newly permitted energy projects in the region would amount to the carbon equivalent of more than five Keystone XL Pipelines.

But in big ways and small—from Coos Bay, Oregon, to Prince Rupert, British Columbia—the Thin Green Line has held fast. Big energy projects have faced delays, uncertainty, mounting costs…and then failure. A review of these projects makes clear just how successful the region has been in denying permission to dirty energy companies as it stays true to its heritage as a center of clean energy, sustainability, and forward thinking.

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The Thin Green Line Grows Stronger

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Important update 5/8/15: The news just keeps getting better. In a stunning reversal, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales withdrew his support for a large propane-by-rail terminal in the city. The Willamette Weekly calls it a “death sentence” for the project. As the Oregonian reported, “At some point, those of us in power have to listen to those who put us there,” Hales said in an interview. It’s a huge—and hugely surprising—win for the opposition movement to Northwest fossil fuel exports.

Yesterday at the annual Climate Solutions breakfast, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray demonstrated what the Northwest means for big fossil fuel expansion plans. Expense. Delay. And ultimately, failure.

In February, the Port of Seattle surprised everyone by rushing through a secretive lease arrangement to host Shell Oil’s Arctic drilling fleet for maintenance in preparation for a summer of drilling the Chukchi Sea bed off Alaska’s North Slope. The move earned bracing admonitions from nearly every environmental group in the state. Local activists are turning out more than a thousand people at opposition rallies, submitting more than 8,000 critical comments, and generating national media attention as they take on the most profitable industry on the planet.

On stage yesterday, the mayor revealed that he had a surprise of his own in store. He announced that the city’s planning department had found that hosting the drilling fleet would violate the Port’s existing land use permits. If the Port wants to proceed with its unpopular and environmentally destructive plans, it must apply for a new permit. In a way, the mayor was actually handing the Seattle Port Commission a huge opportunity: a second chance to do the right thing.

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“If We Cannot Escape, Neither Will the Coal”

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Across the Northwest, Native communities are refusing to stand idle in the face of unprecedented schemes to move coal, oil, and gas through the region. It’s a movement that could well have consequences for global energy markets, and even the pace of climate change. Now is a good moment for pausing to examine some of … Read more

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