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Researching the region’s most pressing sustainability challenges

We provide citizens and decision-makers with the policy analysis and practical tools they need to advance an economy and way of life that are environmentally sound, economically vibrant, and socially just.

Our Work

All Sightline Institute research is available to you to cite, use, and share, per our free use policy.

Democracy + Elections

Voters Want Fewer Elections: Here’s How to Do That

California, Arizona, and Nevada have shifted to even-year elections, boosting turnout and saving money—with lessons for other states.
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Housing + Cities

Washington Lot Split Bills Would Create Starter Homes, Support Community Stability

HB 1245 and SB 5364 advance affordability, financial security, wealth-building, and other benefits for Washingtonians in all kinds of communities.
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Housing + Cities

Washington Bill Would Boost In-law Apartments Throughout the State

Evidence is more conclusive than ever that the reforms proposed in HB 1337 are effective.
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Housing + Cities

The Vast Potential of Pairing Transit and Homes in Washington State

SB 5466 could support hundreds of thousands of needed new homes closer to where residents work, learn, and recreate.
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Climate + Energy

It’s Time to Stop Subsidizing New Gas Pipes

Regulators across Cascadia should end line extension allowances, the subsidies ratepayers finance that expand utilities’ pipeline infrastructure.
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Housing + Cities

New Washington Bill Would Legalize More Homes and Businesses by Transit

Eliminating parking mandates is a simple solution to a big problem.
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How Governor Inslee Can Rebalance Washington’s Utility Decarbonization Bill

HB 1589 favors investors over ratepayers—and state climate goals. A section veto would go a long way to fix the bill.
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180 Sites Account for a Quarter of Cascadia’s Carbon Pollution

The region has a lot more cleaning up to do, even in its greenest corners.
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Is the Permitting Process for Transmission Lines Really Broken?

Analyzing three common claims of malfunction, plus proposing a new, faster way forward for the Northwest.
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Who Will Pay for Cascadia’s Transmission Lines?

The multibillion-dollar question that Senator Maria Cantwell, Governor Jay Inslee, and other Northwest leaders can help answer.
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Why Is It So Hard to Build New Transmission Lines?

For starters, Cascadia has no plan.
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Without Gas, What Business Models Could Gas Utilities Pursue?

Several examples exist, and Cascadian policymakers can encourage shifts while setting guardrails to protect customers.
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The History of Washington’s Wandering Election Day

Despite intending to choose a voting day that’s best for voters, timing could still be easier—and legislators can fix that.
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A Magic Boost for Low-Turnout City Elections

Seattle’s 2024 special city council election showed just how easily local voter participation could skyrocket.
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Reintroducing: Your Local Library, a Critical Tool for Democracy

A Q&A with author and advocate Shamichael Hallman on how public libraries can help us rebuild civic trust and connection—if we redefine our relationship with them. 
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Election Reform Measures Lost; Election Reform Didn’t

What to learn—and what to leave behind—from the 2024 ballot measure losses in Cascadia.
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Alaskans Keep Their Model Election System

The open primaries and ranked choice voting that have delivered more representation for independents and moderate Republicans survived a repeal effort. 
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Portland Election Delivers City’s Most Representative Council Ever

Proportional ranked choice voting lived up to the promises of the voter-approved charter reform.
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Four Ways Context Matters for Wildfire News Coverage

Reporters can help people see the forest, even when the trees are on fire.
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Blazing a Trail: The Vital Role of Wildfire Hazard Maps

Sophisticated and high-resolution maps such as Oregon’s are essential tools for thriving in a fiery future.
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What’s Misunderstood about Indigenous Cultural Fire Is Sovereignty

Lessons from the Karuk Tribe.
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Oregon’s Land Use Law Creates Wildfire-Adapted Communities

Bend residents have shown us how.
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The Best Wildfire Solution We’re Not Using

Three ways to curb the sprawl that traps us on a wildfire treadmill.
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We’re Stuck on a Wildfire Treadmill

And to escape, we need more fire, not less.
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Abundant Housing Requires Abundant Democracy

Candace Avalos (Verde Portland, Neighbors Welcome board member), Jeannette Lee (Sightline Institute), and moderator Alex Zielinski (Portland Mercury) discuss electoral reforms in Alaska and Portland, and their potential to affect housing policy.
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Social Housing in Our Backyards: West Coast Campaigns Aim for Housing Access for All

Tiffani McCoy (Real Change and House Our Neighbors!), Darrell Owens (California YIMBY), and moderator Ned Resnikoff (California YIMBY) talk about campaigns for social housing and how this model can succeed in the US.
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Showing Up for All Our Neighbors: YIMBY and Houselessness

Kaia Sand (Street Roots), Trisha Patterson (Portland: Neighbors Welcome), and moderator Hanna Brooks Olsen discuss the importance of government, organizations, and the unhoused working together and recognizing each other’s strengths and lived experiences to inform policies.
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From Highways to Homes: The Opportunity to Reconnect Communities Divided by Freeways

Shawn Dunwoody (Hinge Neighbors), Regan Patterson (Congressional Black Caucus Foundation), Amy Stelly (Claiborne Avenue Alliance), Marc Wouters (Marc Wouters | Studios), and moderator Ben Crowther (Congress for the New Urbanism) discuss their efforts to remove freeways and replace them with thriving connected neighborhoods.
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Recipes for Successful Abundant Housing Communications

In this panel discussion, three expert communicators share how they’ve crafted compelling narratives, engaged coalitions, and garnered press attention for housing affordability and climate policy.
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Community Land Trusts in Our Backyards: A Key to Homeownership for Working Families

Kathleen Hosfeld (Homestead Community Land Trust) and Diane Linn (Proud Ground) provide a primer on a housing model that breaks barriers to permanently affordable homeownership.
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Video: Housing Solutions Are Climate Solutions

In 90 seconds, how zoning for more home choices in our cities helps affordability and cuts climate pollution.
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Poll: Washington Voters Out Ahead Of Local Leaders On Zoning Reforms

Statewide survey shows broad voter receptivity—across partisan, demographic, and geographic lines—to zoning changes to allow more homes like duplexes and small apartment buildings.
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Video: Zoning for All Kinds of Affordable Homes

Cities need all kinds of affordability, both subsidized housing and naturally affordable, modest-sized, market-rate homes.
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Recipes for Successful Abundant Housing Communications

In this panel discussion, three expert communicators share how they’ve crafted compelling narratives, engaged coalitions, and garnered press attention for housing affordability and climate policy.
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How to Tear Down the Invisible Walls in Your City’s Zoning Code

10 tips for zoning reformers from a town that legalized housing.
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Americans Want to Vote As Trump Does (By Mail), Not As He Says

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Sightline news picks

Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Cut through the noise and get the news you can use. Sightline editors—real people—hand-pick headlines from 150+ outlets to keep you on top of the stories shaping our region’s communities, economy, and environment. Reader favorite; formerly known as Sightline Daily. 

Sightline weekly

Saturday mornings.

Only have a few minutes each week? Our weekly wrap-up delivers the latest Sightline research and solutions, plus top headlines to keep movers and shakers in the know. 

Sightline month in review

End of the month.

Get a month’s worth of solutions research and key headlines, plus a personal note from a Sightline team member connecting the dots and putting our work into the larger news context. 

Issue insights from Sightline experts

Hear directly from our team of experts. They take you on a deeper dive into Sightline’s solutions, translating their latest analysis and sharing behind-the-scenes context for the research—as well as what to watch for next. Delivered about monthly.

Housing + Cities

Parking, zoning, sprawl, pollution, property rights, commutes, rents, and home prices—they all intersect where a legacy of exclusionary rules and regulations restrict homebuilding and fuel our housing shortage. Hear from Dan Bertolet, Catie Gould, Michael Andersen, and others exploring solutions for low-carbon, affordable, accessible cities and towns.  

Climate + Energy

From electrification to decarbonization, carbon pricing to grid upgrades, Emily Moore and team decode the policy solutions to power a greener, more equitable, and robust economy for the region’s future.  

Democracy + Elections

Protecting voter choice and voice with clear-eyed, independent analysis and models of success—Alan Durning, Jay Lee, Shannon Grimes, Al Vanderklipp, and others send you the latest elections solutions and opportunities, from Alaska to Oregon and inland to Montana and Idaho. 

Farms + Forests

Where sustainability meets stewardship of our natural resources and food systems. Get dispatches from actual farms and forests—and the policy discussions that determine their health and climate impacts. 

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