Search Results
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FAQ About I-5 Rose Quarter Expansion and Congestion Pricing in Portland
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Public Comment Period for Anacortes Petrochemical Project Closes November 1
Northwest petrochemical projects have hit stumbling blocks across the region, but a big one on the north Puget Sound is still moving forward, and time is running out to stop it. Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) plans to expand its Anacortes oil refinery to add a petrochemical production facility to serve export markets. It’s a project that could pose serious risks for the Salish Sea, but the public has a limited opportunity to...Read more » -
BC Is Increasing Its Carbon Tax!
What a difference an election can make. On September 11, the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) released its four-year budget, revealing that it will increase the province’s carbon tax by $5 per metric ton each year, reaching $50 per metric ton in April 2021. Hallelujah! This exciting change in BC climate policy is thanks in part to the small but mighty BC Green Party, which helped bring the NDP...Read more » -
Why Seattle Builds Apartments, but Vancouver, BC, Builds Condos
When it comes to condominium development, Cascadia’s two largest cities couldn’t be more different. Last year nearly 60 percent of new housing starts in the city of Vancouver, BC, were condominiums; meanwhile, Seattle saw no new condominium buildings open. And that’s not changing anytime soon: less than 10 percent of all building slated for downtown Seattle in the next three years will be condos. What’s the difference—why the blossoming of...Read more » -
Yes, Red Tape and Fees Do Raise the Price of Housing
Few public policy issues can match urban housing politics for its incendiary combination of passion and misconception. To wit: the confounding idea that relaxing regulations and fees to decrease the cost of homebuilding won’t make homes more affordable. Why? Because, goes the refrain, developers charge as much as the “market will bear” anyway. Any savings from streamlined regulations or reduced fees just yield more profit for the developer, not lower...Read more » -
Why Has BC’s LNG Industry Stalled?
On Thursday the British Columbia Legislature will take a vote that portends nothing but bad news and headaches for the province’s floundering liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. With that vote, the BC Liberals—a party that wholeheartedly supported LNG development, going so far as to put LNG exports at the center of the party’s economic platform—will likely lose their grip on power for the first time since 2001. The new government will...Read more » -
BC’s Carbon Pollution Could Double with LNG Plants
British Columbia is of two minds. The province has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas pollution by 80 percent by 2050, but simultaneously it aims to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change through emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. BC is currently considering 19 LNG export proposals, many of which are colossal in size. In fact, two of...Read more » -
Map: The Future Is Carbon-Priced and the US is Getting Left Behind
A little over a year ago, 195 countries signed on to the historic Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming pollution. This year, the United States pointed a loaded gun at its own foot, and President Trump pulled the trigger, announcing he will withdraw from the agreement. But the rest of the world is moving ahead with carbon pricing programs that will give other countries a head start in the...Read more » -
LNG ‘Giants of the Sea’ Headed for BC Waters
British Columbia’s Pacific Coast is home to prolific salmon runs, pristine shorelines, and a rich archaeological history. Yet amid these natural wonders, the fossil fuel industry has sited proposals for nineteen liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments that would greatly increase tanker traffic navigating remote island channels with strong currents and tides. To make clear the scale of the provincial government’s LNG gamble, we calculated the possible cumulative increase in marine traffic:...Read more » -
Event: Homeownership: Receding Dream or New Approaches?
Since at least World War II, homeownership has been one of the main paths to accumulating assets in the United States. Redlining and other lending rules welcomed white families onto this path, but excluded families of color from the mortgages and neighborhoods that allowed them to build wealth. The resulting patterns of inequality in ownership persist: the net worth of the average US homeowner is now $195,400—36 times the average...Read more »