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Yet another tentacle of the Northwest gas industry seems to be reaching for Longview, Washington, on the Columbia River, where city authorities are now evaluating plans for a new $1 billion gas-to-fertilizer plant. Pacific Coast Fertilizer proposes to build and operate a facility that would process methane gas (commonly known as “natural” gas) in the manufacture of anhydrous ammonia, a popular nitrogen fertilizer with a notable risk profile. In order...

This fall, Sightline researcher Tarika Powell participated in the speaking series We Are Water: A Community Conversation. The program brought together artists, environmental professionals, and community members to discuss shared water issues along the Pacific Coast. Tarika spoke about the impact that fossil fuel projects in the Pacific Northwest have on water, and addressed issues of environmental justice as they pertain to the communities most affected by these projects. “We...

How does a growing, prospering city stay affordable for all kinds of people? At the most basic level, when there aren’t enough homes, prices will keep rising. And when there are plenty of homes, it helps prices stay down. It’s like a huge game of musical chairs. If there aren’t enough chairs when the music stops, someone is left out. When there aren’t enough homes for people who live and...

“How much of my gas is fracked?” That’s a question we get a lot at Sightline. The answer is complicated: both fracked and unfracked gases are injected into the same pipelines, where it comingles. There is no pipeline that delivers only conventional gas, and no pipeline that delivers only fracked gas, so for any particular consumer or region it can be difficult to track down which wells provided the gas...

Eric At City Lab, a good story on researchers zeroing in on social isolation—loneliness—as a major emerging public health threat, especially among the elderly. It puts me in mind of a rather bone-chilling recent article by Jean Twenge at the Atlantic, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” She writes: Some generational changes are positive, some are negative, and many are both. More comfortable in their bedrooms than in a car or at a...

Eric On the side of my desk, I’m compiling evidence about the effects of social media on our emotional states, our cognitive faculties, and our communities. The summary version, so far, is that there is very little evidence that it does anything good for us, and a growing body that it’s bad. Perhaps very bad. (BTW, if you’ve got useful material, please send it to me!) In this week’s installment...

When Hurricane Harvey slammed into coastal Texas, it demonstrated why we plan for worst case scenarios. It turned 33 of the state’s counties into federal disaster areas, knocked out power for nearly 300,000 residents, and shredded the appearance of safety at a range of oil, gas, and chemical sites. While the fossil fuel industry has its sights set on making the Pacific Northwest over in the Gulf Coast’s image, Harvey...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkRaz7VKc9s&feature=youtu.be The Lummi Nation’s Totem Pole Journey is underway! The House of Tears Carvers are traveling again across the western United States and Canada with a totem pole to bring attention to proposed coal, oil, and fracked fuel projects that threaten tribes and local communities. Sightline senior research associate Tarika Powell will speak about Northwest dirty energy proposals, specifically Puget Sound Energy’s proposed LNG facility in Tacoma, at the blessing stop...

I won’t surprise anyone by saying that Americans are increasingly polarized. It follows—unfortunately—that people continue to look at the world, and issues of science and other facts, through an increasingly tinted partisan lens. Take climate change. While Americans of all stripes support hurricane aid to victims “even if no other correspondent funding is cut” (74 percent), including a broad seven in 10 conservatives (69 percent), a new CNN poll tells us...

Tarika The most interesting and thought-provoking thing I’ve read all year is a CNN Money story on a small Macedonian town that played a big part on the 2016 American election. The Fake News Machine: Inside a Town Gearing up for 2020  takes readers inside the fake news economy of Veles, Macedonia. In 2016, Veles residents ran no fewer than 100 fake news websites aimed at conservative voters, most of...