Most recent 20 articles: Sightline
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The Contradiction of a Split Vote on Washington’s Anti-Climate Ballot Initiatives - Sightline (Oct 24, 2024) |
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Oct 24, 2024 · Drop box on an autumn day. Photo by Emily Moore
Two of the four measures on Washington state’s ballots this fall, Initiatives 2066 and 2117, take aim at the state’s climate policies. I-2117, the better known of the two, would repeal the state’s cap-and-invest law, the Climate Commitment Act. I-2066 would restrict Washington’s ability to decarbonize buildings, the state’s second highest emitting sector.
Yet support for the two initiatives diverges. Roughly 44 percent of respondents indicated they would approve I-2066 compared to just 30 percent who said they would approve I-2117, according to an October Seattle Times poll. Roughly a quarter of respondents were undecided ... Read more ...
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(Re)explaining Washington’s Climate Commitment Act - Sightline (Oct 08, 2024) |
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Oct 08, 2024 · SDOT RapidRide by SDOT Photos used under CC BY-NC 2.0
Editor’s Note: In 2021, when Washington enacted the Climate Commitment Act, Sightline published an explainer of the new law. We are publishing this updated explainer with the latest information about the law.
In 2021 Washington enacted the Climate Commitment Act, becoming only the second US state (after California) with an economy-wide cap-and-invest program. With the passage of the Climate Commitment Act, Washington also put in place its primary enforcement mechanism for achieving the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The law went into effect in January 2023.
In November 2024, Initiative 2117 on ... Read more ...
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Explaining Washington’s Ballot Initiative 2066 - Sightline (Sep 24, 2024) |
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Sep 24, 2024 · Cooking on an induction stove
Burning gas to heat homes, generate electricity, and power industry bears responsibility for about a quarter of Washington’s climate pollution. Washington State—and its cities–have enacted a suite of laws to help homes and businesses make the transition from gas to all-electric appliances such as heat pumps. Initiative Measure No. 2066 on Washington’s November 2024 ballot would directly repeal some of the state’s gas transition policies and could impact others.
Below we explain four policies and regulations in Washington that the initiative could impact.
Initiative 2066 reverses a requirement that Washington’s energy code ... Read more ...
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Hydrogen Is Sneaking Its Way into Oregon Homes - Sightline (Sep 12, 2024) |
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Sep 12, 2024 · Gas Meters by ivva ??? used under CC BY-SA 2.0
Customers in southeast Portland recently found out that hydrogen may be sneaking its way into their homes. NW Natural, Oregon’s largest gas utility, has started injecting hydrogen, blended with so-called “natural gas,” into its distribution lines without informing customers or regulators.1See Sightline’s 2018 talking points for calling “natural gas” what it is.
Hydrogen is a bad bet for decarbonizing homes pretty much any way you look at it. It’s far more expensive than electrification, can’t achieve nearly the same climate impact, and can be dangerous, as Sightline has written about extensively. Plus, since carbon-free ... Read more ...
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The Northwest’s Electric Grid Deserves an Upgrade - Sightline (Sep 11, 2024) |
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Sep 11, 2024 · Lineman restrings conductor by Western Area Power used under CC BY 2.0 (Photo by Kevin Ripplinger)
The lights could soon dim on the Northwest’s climate goals unless the grid gets some serious TLC.
The region, like the United States as a whole, needs more electric transmission capacity to reach the best wind and solar resources and meet rising power demand without burning coal or gas. But building new transmission lines can take decades and cost billions. Luckily there are no-brainer ways to squeeze more juice out of the existing grid.
Among the options, reconductoring—swapping out the wires on transmission lines for higher capacity ones—holds particular ... Read more ...
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Four Ways Context Matters for Wildfire News Coverage - Sightline (Aug 21, 2024) |
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Aug 21, 2024 · Reporters can help people see the forest, even when the trees are on fire.
News is news. And fire is fire. But coverage of wildfires in 2024 is more than a matter of acres burned, percentage contained, drought and wind conditions, evacuation orders, and threats to lives and property. All that is important, but it’s not the full story. Journalists play a vital role in interpreting the significance of wildfire events within a broader context. For example, over the past decade, following the available science, reporters have shifted from covering wildfires simply as natural disasters and zeroing in only on a singular “cause” or spark. They are more often clarifying how wildfires ... Read more ...
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Five Ways Ranked Choice Voting Could Help Climate Action - Sightline (Aug 16, 2024) |
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Aug 16, 2024 · Columbia River Gorge by Bill Devlin used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A supermajority of Americans wants more climate action.1 And yes, there’s been progress, especially here in Cascadia. Yet laws in the United States are still not aligned with public sentiment on climate and many other issues.
That’s because our democracy isn’t functioning as it should.
One could blame individual elected leaders for their foibles. But perceiving everyone to be at fault—“fire everyone and start fresh,” as one recent US survey respondent summarized—is more productively interpreted as a nudge to explore the structures that incentivize politicians to act the way they ... Read more ...
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Blazing a Trail: The Vital Role of Wildfire Hazard Maps - Sightline (Aug 08, 2024) |
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Aug 08, 2024 · Oregon’s Wildfire Hazard Map and WUI map, overlaid. Source: OR Dept of Forestry.
Oregon and Washington are currently fighting 32 major wildfires, and over 9,000 people are under an evacuation notice in Oregon. It is a blistering wildfire season but one we knew to expect. And thanks to technology and wildfire hazard maps, we also know where to expect intense fires.
Hazard maps are a key piece in the wildfire crisis puzzle that we’re racing against time to finish. While it’s true that wildfires can destroy homes anywhere (as we learned when the Tubbs Fire burned through urban Santa Rosa, California), they are much more likely in certain predictable places. These places are ... Read more ...
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Washington State Leads in Climate-Friendly Building Policies - For Now - Sightline (Jul 31, 2024) |
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Jul 31, 2024 · Health Science Building-1577 by Central Washington University used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (Central Washington University will receive ~$12 million in Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funding to decarbonize heating and cooling on campus buildings, including the Health Sciences building pictured here. This funding will disappear if the CCA is repealed.)
Buildings make up a quarter of Washington state’s carbon emissions, polluting more than any other sector except transportation.1This includes electricity emissions in commercial and residential buildings; it does not include industrial emissions. To change this grim statistic and achieve state climate goals, Washington has put in ... Read more ...
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Five Flaws That Would Destine WA’s TOD Bills to Backfire - Sightline (Jul 19, 2024) |
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Jul 19, 2024 · Mercy Othello Plaza opened in 2017 with 108 affordable homes and street-level commercial space by Sound Transit (Transit-Oriented Development Quarterly Status Report)
To dig out of the state’s deep shortage of homes and control the crisis of high prices and rents, Washington legislators have passed a slew of bills in the past two years to boost housing production, including the re-legalization of accessory dwellings, middle housing, and co-living homes. But for two years running, the legislature has reached an impasse on a remaining zoning reform that’s critical for curbing sprawl, cutting pollution, and making Washington communities affordable for all incomes: legalizing ... Read more ...
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Aging Solutions Are Climate Solutions - Sightline (Apr 18, 2024) |
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Apr 18, 2024 · Senior Couple Walking in London by Themeisle used under CC ZERO 1.0
When climate disasters like wildfires, flooding, heat waves, or polar vortexes grip communities, they hold a sharper threat for older adults, whose numbers in the US and Canada are growing. And even beyond these more headline-grabbing events are the everyday activities that may prove more challenging for older adults to perform independently in a warmer world. In Cascadia, that might look like being able to afford air conditioning to keep cool as the summers get hotter. Or so one can close the windows against wildfire smoke to keep indoor air safer for breathing, especially for those with respiratory ailments. Read more ...
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What’s Misunderstood about Indigenous Cultural Fire Is Sovereignty - Sightline (Apr 11, 2024) |
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Apr 11, 2024 · The Karuk Climate Adaptation Plan shows how cultural burning allows for species abundance. Figure by the Karuk Tribe and Kirsten Vinyeta. Used with permission.
“The piece that is misunderstood about Indigenous cultural fire is sovereignty.” That was one of the first things Bill Tripp, director of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy for the Karuk Tribe, said to me when I interviewed him for Sightline’s research series on wildfire solutions.??
Each year, wildfires cost the United States tens to hundreds of billions of dollars. Policymakers are finally acknowledging what Indigenous peoples have been saying for decades: most forests need more fire, not less. ... Read more ...
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Washingtonians Will Soon Enjoy Cleaner Heating and Cooling Options - Sightline (Mar 21, 2024) |
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Mar 21, 2024 · Workers connect a sewer line to the South Lake Union Energy District in 2023 in one of the United States’ first large commercial projects to use sewer-system-generated heat as a renewable energy source for buildings. Photo by King County Wastewater Treatment Division.
The possibility of connecting your home or business to a clean heating and cooling network could be coming to your neighborhood soon.
Washington lawmakers have opened up a new realm of climate-friendly business opportunities for the state’s energy utilities. With the unanimous passage of House Bill 2131, introduced by Representative Alex Ramel (D-40), electric and gas utilities may now sell thermal energy, ... Read more ...
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How Governor Inslee Can Rebalance Washington’s Utility Decarbonization Bill - Sightline (Mar 14, 2024) |
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Mar 14, 2024 · Protection by Bruce Evans used under CC BY-NC 2.0
Washington state leaders set out again this legislative session to move the state’s utilities forward on a path toward electrification and away from gas. House Bill 1589—a bill that passed in the 2024 session and is to be delivered to Governor Jay Inslee’s desk any day now—is a move in that direction.
This bill, initiated by Puget Sound Energy (PSE), Washington’s largest electric and gas utility, requires the utility to proactively plan for the transition from gas to clean energy. The coalition of climate and consumer advocates who helped usher it to passage knew that to get PSE to retire its existing gas ... Read more ...
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180 Sites Account for a Quarter of Cascadia’s Carbon Pollution - Sightline (Jan 04, 2024) |
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Jan 04, 2024 · Cascadia chalked up major climate wins in 2023, from Washington’s renewed commitment to eliminating gas appliances in new buildings to Montana youth’s historic court win for a clean and healthy climate. At the same time, many Northwest climate hawks are gearing up for new challenges in 2024, including a likely bitter fight to defend Washington’s landmark climate law, the Climate Commitment Act, from a rightwing repeal effort.
Still, as policy debates rage, it can be easy to forget that every day, scores of huge polluters continue to dirty Cascadia’s air, making the worst effects of climate change ever more difficult to stave off.
Cascadia counts 180 stationary facilities ... Read more ...
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Is the Permitting Process for Transmission Lines Really Broken? - Sightline (Nov 09, 2023) |
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Nov 09, 2023 · Editor’s note:?This is the third of three articles discussing the major challenges - planning, paying for it, and permitting - to building the transmission lines needed to transition to a cleaner energy future.
Permitting reform is the topic du jour in US climate circles. Renewable energy advocates and fossil fuel boosters alike are rallying to speed governmental approval of energy projects. At the same time, some progressives decry this effort as a misguided ruse to dismantle bedrock environmental and community protections.
How should climate leaders make sense of these debates? Just how big a barrier is permitting, really, to building the electric power grid Cascadia ... Read more ...
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Oregon’s Land Use Law Creates Wildfire-Adapted Communities - Sightline (Jul 25, 2023) |
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Jul 25, 2023 · William Kuhn, who lost his Bend, Oregon, home in the Awbrey Hall Fire, has a warning: “Anyone who decides to live on the edge of the forest risks losing their homes. We know that.”
Once considered rare, the “fire weather” that fueled the 1990 Awbrey Hall Fire is now a fixture of Cascadia’s climate. “It’s not a question of if, but when fires come through,” said Boone Zimmerlee, Deschutes County’s fire-adapted communities coordinator.
The 2013 Green Ridge Fire burns in the Deschutes National Forest (source: US Forest Service).
Building wildfire-resilient communities is key for climate adaptation. As I recently documented, the best tool for the job is guiding growth ... Read more ...
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Why Is It So Hard to Build New Transmission Lines? - Sightline (Jul 20, 2023) |
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Jul 20, 2023 · BPA transmission lines. Photo by Emily Moore.
Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles discussing the major challenges—planning, permitting, and paying for it—to building out the transmission lines needed to transition to a cleaner energy future.
Electric transmission lines—those giant high-voltage wires that zap electricity across long distances—recently graduated from a fringe topic to a core challenge in the quest to decarbonize Cascadia. More leaders and climate hawks now recognize the centrality of transmission capacity to meeting climate goals, but that recognition has yet to yield action. The Northwest grid is jammed, and hundreds ... Read more ...
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Transitioning Off Gas - Sightline (Jul 19, 2023) |
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Jul 19, 2023 · Cascadia boasts some of the most ambitious climate pollution-cutting goals in the nation. Meeting those targets requires millions of homes and businesses to transition off gas and onto clean electricity. But the state’s gas utilities are expanding, prolonging the lifespan of the polluting gas system and creating massive financial risks for gas customers. At the same time, gas utilities are obstructing decarbonization solutions while promoting dangerous, expensive, and unproven ideas like hydrogen for home heating.
Building and incentivizing clean appliances and infrastructure for individual homes - Cascadia’s approach to date - is necessary but not sufficient to meet today’s ... Read more ...
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Without Gas, What Business Models Could Gas Utilities Pursue? - Sightline (Jul 17, 2023) |
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Jul 17, 2023 · Carrier VRF/VRV Heat Pump by FanFan61618 used under CC BY-SA 2.0
Between 2003 and 2018, about 55 percent of adults in the United States abandoned their landline telephones in favor of wireless ones. Phone companies that rode the wave of innovation and diversification reaped financial rewards, while those that stuck with the outmoded landline strategy faced demise.
Like landline telephones, Cascadia’s gas utilities’ main business is quickly becoming obsolete. Gas companies are reckoning with disruption from all angles: consumers are buying electric heat pumps instead of gas furnaces, federal laws are boosting electric appliances, and new regulation is constraining gas ... Read more ...
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