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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

What Can Portland Learn from America’s Oldest Proportional Election System?

City Councilor Burhan Azeem shares his experiences from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Housing + Cities

Boise Poised for First Step Towards More Abundant, Affordable Housing

The new zoning code legalizes more types of housing but creates new barriers to abundance.
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Climate + EnergyFossil Fuel Transition

It’s Time for Cascadia to Start Pruning the Gas System and Electrifying Whole Neighborhoods

Early efforts in California, Colorado, and New York offer lessons to get started.
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Housing + Cities

Getting Beyond the Detached House in Vancouver, BC

How a flexible “Plex” design could add lower-cost homes, green space, and walkable, vibrant neighborhoods—fast—across housing-strapped cities.
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Housing + Cities

Oregon’s Untapped Gold Mine: The Homes that Don’t Yet Exist

To reduce housing shortages, small doses of cash could get many projects built. A bill introduced in Oregon this year suggests a clever place to find it.
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Farms + Forests

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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The High Cost of Unplanned Oil Refinery Closures

Measuring the employment and tax losses to communities and how oil companies are avoiding or delaying cleaning up their long-polluted sites. Plus, looking ahead for Washington state planning.
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New Report Charts Need for WA to Plan Ahead for Oil Refinery Closures

A spate of recent shutdowns across the US holds urgent lessons for local communities.
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No, Hydrogen Is Not the Savior Gas Utilities Are Looking For

Gas companies are making a risky bet.
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Northwest States Need to Build New Power Lines, Fast

Otherwise, Oregon and Washington will miss critical climate targets.
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Heat Pumps a Win-Win for Cascadia’s Now Hotter, Drier Summers

The heat dome bolstered the case for cleaner home cooling and heating technology and for decarbonizing the region’s economy.
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The Pipeline Giant Behind Keystone XL Wants to Expand a Major Fracked Gas Pipeline in Cascadia

TC Energy is hoping no one will notice.
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Washington State Joins the Movement to Honor Voting Rights for All Community Members

Starting January 2022, all citizens will have the right to vote upon release from prison
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Automatic Voter Registration Continues to Kick Ass in Oregon

94 percent of eligible voters are now registered to vote and kept up-to-date.
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Becoming a Democracy: From Our Lips to Your Ears

A round-up of recent interviews about a better future for US democracy.
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Alaska’s Lawmakers Have a Bipartisan Election Fix at Their Fingertips

Can Juneau show the rest of America how to make elections inclusive and secure?
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A Top-Four Primary Would Give Voters More Choices

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Let’s Make Alaska Absentee Voting Boring Again

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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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Parking Reform Alone Can Boost Homebuilding by 40 to 70 Percent

More evidence that parking flexibility is key to housing abundance.
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Three Ways Anchorage Leaders Could Unlock More Homes

The ordinances under consideration offer commonsense solutions to address the city’s longstanding housing shortage.
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Parking Mandates Are Keeping Kids Out of Daycare

But cities can ditch these arbitrary rules and help families out of the daycare desert.
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In Race after Race, People Keep Electing Pro-Housing Politicians

Contrary to some misconceptions, most voters seem to understand that housing is good.
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To Fix Inclusionary Zoning, Fund It

Lessons from places that are solving the biggest problem in abundant housing politics and policy.
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Vancouver Shows Just How Much it Costs to Ban Apartments

Driving problems from inequality to sprawl to pollution, restrictions against anything but single-detached houses have to go.
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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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