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It’s been a couple of months since we last checked to see what oil refiner Tesoro has been up to. During that time, there have been three significant events to report: 1.) On December 9, 2010, Tesoro’s problem-plagued refinery in Martinez, California had yet another flare-up: A power outage at the Tesoro Golden Eagle Refinery prompted a visit from a Contra Costa County Health Services Department haz-mat team and the issuance of a...

“Conservatives create moral messages. The Democrats create policy messages, and policy messages either go over people’s heads or bore them.” That’s George Lakoff talking (to NPR). The well-known messaging expert and linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says that Obama missed an opportunity to frame health care reform as a moral imperative. Instead, the president focused on 24 points of policy. On the flip side, opponents of Obama’s...

This weekend, my in-laws came to town. Which was a very happy occasion. I handed over my two-year-old daughter (and four pages of instructions) to them while my husband and I fled to a hotel in downtown Seattle for two glorious nights. We drank martinis at the Mayflower Park Hotel (among other places, but those were the best), got to see the new Coen brothers movie, slept as late as...

For the last several years something has really gotten under my skin: the way we talk about housing and affordability. I don’t like the way we measure it. The first time I found myself getting unhappy about the discussion about housing affordability was a few years ago when I watched the debate over legislation to create incentive zoning in Seattle. By using a formula based on Area Median Income and...

Back in October, I started noticing the accusation that Seattle is waging a “war on cars” pop up an awful lot in the Seattle-area press, and in suspicious ways. On its face, the charge that Seattle is waging a war on cars is pretty silly. After all, that the bulk of the city’s political leaders support two car-centric megaprojects—the 520 bridge and the Alaskan Way tunnel—that will cost in the...

One of the most despicable chapters in the history of the United States is the hundred years of segregation following the Civil War. As if slavery wasn’t bad enough, the United States tolerated—and through court decisions mandated—a system that fundamentally deprived people of the rights afforded to their fellow citizens because of their race. All of this in spite of the 14th amendment guaranteeing equal rights to everyone.   The story...

Just when you were starting to admit to yourself that you find geology boring, someone goes and makes Northwest rocks interesting again. And beautiful too. Check out this short multimedia documentary about what you find in the North Cascades of southern BC and northern Washington. [I’ve embedded it below, but you should really see it on Vimeo.]   Although “Hozomeen chert” sort of sounds like a hipster band, it’s actually a flint-like rock that...

Life expectancy in the city of Seattle has positively soared over the last couple of decades!  Take a look:  in the early 1990s, residents of Seattle (the blue line) could expect a shorter average lifespan than the the state as a whole (the pink line).  But by 1997, Emerald City life expectancy shot ahead of the state average; and by the middle of the last decade it had even moved...

I know everyone is supposed to be dour and disheartened about the prospects for climate policy right now. And while I can’t say that I’m thrilled with where we are, it’s useful to take stock of what’s happening because it’s not insignificant: California. Next week, regulators are expected to approve a cap-and-trade program for the Golden State. It should be a slam dunk given that Proposition 23—the oil company funded gutting...

One of the more encouraging developments in Northwest conservation has to be the quiet but steady advancement of marine reserves off the Oregon coast. A couple of smaller pilot reserves have already been set aside; and then yesterday a key advisory council strongly endorsed three larger reserves. As the Oregonian reported: The proposed reserves—at Cape Falcon [south of Cannon Beach], Cascade Head near Lincoln City and Cape Perpetua near Yachats—will now move...