Search Results
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End Apartment Bans to Save the Planet, UN Climate Report Says
Local bans on attached homes in cities are driving up energy use and helping cook the climate, the United Nations Environment Program wrote in a report published Tuesday. “In some locations, spatial planning prevents the construction of multifamily residences and locks in suburban forms at high social and environmental costs,” the report’s authors wrote. They suggest a 20 percent cut to average floor area per person by 2050. UN institutions...Read more » -
This Clause in the US Constitution Is Being Wielded to Attack Climate Change Policies
Earlier this year, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation requiring that oil transported by rail to refineries in the state must meet a reduced “vapor pressure” threshold, the measure of a liquid’s volatility. The law is designed to address a history of oil trains catastrophically catching fire after derailing, including one explosive incident in a small town in Quebec that killed dozens of residents. North Dakota has been a vocal...Read more » -
Eliminate the Senate!
Author’s note: This is a longer version of an Oregonian op-ed from July 21. American voters, thinkers, media outlets, our policy partners, and we at Sightline have been saying for years that broken institutions of democracy block progress on all the things we care about. In June, the Oregon senate showed just how true that is. By fleeing the state to prevent a quorum, a tiny number of senators were...Read more » -
Seven Bombshells in the Blackjewel Bankruptcy
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Lower Columbia River Critical Front on the Thin Green Line
In all the Pacific Northwest, the Lower Columbia River is the most vulnerable to the threat of fossil fuel expansion. In one 50-mile stretch along the region’s biggest hydrological artery, there are no fewer than seven active proposals to bring, refine or handle coal, oil, gas, or other fuels before shipping them to markets elsewhere. The Northwest’s opposition movement to fossil fuels—the Thin Green Line—has turned back dozens of proposals...Read more » -
Great News: Portland’s Next Rail Line May Have Fewer Parking Garages
The people planning the Portland area’s next light-rail line seem to be steering away from a scenario where taxpayers waste $100 million of precious public-transit funding on a series of giant parking garages. But unless the public speaks up in the next month, it’s possible that a handful of elected officials will push to build the garages anyway—despite a mountain of evidence that spending the money on bus service, infrastructure...Read more » -
Clean Energy Jobs Bill: What Oregonians Need to Know
Oregonians have been pushing for comprehensive climate action for more than a decade. Other states and provinces in North America have forged ahead, attracting clean energy investments, creating local jobs, and cleaning up the air they breathe but Oregonians are still paying price for someone else’s pollution—hospital bills for our kids’ asthma, a faltering seafood industry, wildfires, and more. With not a moment to spare, Oregon’s elected leaders are united...Read more » -
Tips for Talking About the Green New Deal
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2018 in Review: Fossil Fuel Companies Fumble; Clean Energy Bills Set to Take Spotlight
A report released in October by United Nations’ climate scientists was an ominous wakeup call for many. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now predicts the Earth’s atmosphere will warm by more than 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2040—a shift that could cause global environmental and humanitarian catastrophe. The news delivered a bleak message, but it also underscored that our work to create sustainable, equitable communities and a healthy environment here...Read more » -
Why’s the Rent So High for New Apartments in Seattle?
The notion of the “greedy developer” is alive and well in North America. A recent UCLA study found that the most powerful catalyst of opposition to the construction of new homes is the conviction that developers pocket too much profit. And in booming Cascadian cities such as Seattle, that belief creates a political environment hostile to homebuilding, which worsens an affordability crisis caused by a shortage of homes. When people...Read more »