Most recent 40 articles: Sightline
 |
Is the Permitting Process for Transmission Lines Really Broken? - Sightline (Nov 9) |
|
Nov 9 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Oregon’s Land Use Law Creates Wildfire-Adapted Communities - Sightline (Jul 25) |
|
Jul 25 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Why Is It So Hard to Build New Transmission Lines? - Sightline (Jul 20) |
|
Jul 20 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Transitioning Off Gas - Sightline (Jul 19) |
|
Jul 19 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Without Gas, What Business Models Could Gas Utilities Pursue? - Sightline (Jul 17) |
|
Jul 17 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
The Best Wildfire Solution We’re Not Using - Sightline (Jun 01, 2023) |
|
Jun 01, 2023 · Bumper-to-bumper traffic as evacuees flee the Creek Fire (source: Kilmer Media/Shutterstock.com).
It’s time to address the elephant in the room: the best and possibly only practical way to protect homes from fire is to stop building so many of them in places that are primed to burn. According to Dr. Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist with the United States Geological Survey, “People are so fixated on climate change, which is a very real concern, but the bigger driver of accelerating wildfire damage is building houses in the WUI.” The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses are built in or near natural areas—either through urban sprawl or when satellite ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
We’re Stuck on a Wildfire Treadmill - Sightline (May 24, 2023) |
|
May 24, 2023 · More low-intensity fires could have prevented the megafires that turned 700,000 acres of forest into a “moonscape” and incinerated more than one billion board feet of timber. That is what the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation claim in their lawsuit against the US government. There is good evidence backing them up.
Even with more flexible policy and some redistribution in funding, federal and state wildfire response still does not follow science-based recommendations to allow wildfires to burn when conditions are low-risk and to use intentional controlled fires to restore forest health and climate resiliency.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Northwest Needs More Midsize Solar - Sightline (May 10, 2023) |
|
May 10, 2023 · Neighborhood Power’s Williams Acres community solar project outside Woodburn, OR. Courtesy of Energy Trust of Oregon.
To meet climate targets, the Northwest needs to build unprecedented amounts of wind and solar power and the electric transmission lines to carry it.
Easier said than done.
Utility-scale renewable projects—like acres-large solar installations or miles-long corridors of wind turbines—and the electric wires that connect them to cities and towns increasingly inspire opposition. They can require vast tracts of land, and, if not planned responsibly, can threaten sensitive habitats, prime farmland, and tribal rights.
In light of these ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
What Washington, DC, Can Learn from the Other Washington about Climate Policy - Sightline (Mar 09, 2023) |
|
Mar 09, 2023 · Cherry Blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial -- Washington (DC) March 2012 by Ron Cogswell used under CC BY 2.0
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the Niskanen Center, authored by Kristin Eberhard, the Center’s Director of Climate Policy. Prior to joining Niskanen, Kristin was the director of Sightline’s climate and democracy programs. She continues to serve as a Sightline senior fellow.
Some insiders in Washington, DC, have given up on carbon pricing. Across the country in the state of Washington, advocates had for a while done the same, after more than a decade in which numerous carbon pricing bills collapsed in the Legislature and not one but two ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Is There a Future for Gas Utilities? It Could Be Heating and Cooling Your Home (from the Ground) - Sightline (Jan 11, 2023) |
|
Jan 11, 2023 · Mercer Corridor Project October 2010 by SDOT Photos used under CC BY-NC 2.0
To meet Cascadia’s climate goals, we will need to stop burning natural gas to warm our homes, cook our food, dry our clothes, and heat our water. Buildings emit the second-highest level of greenhouse gas emissions of any sector in both Oregon and Washington and the third-highest in British Columbia, in large part because they burn so much gas.1Each jurisdiction calculates emissions slightly differently. Building emissions include both residential and commercial. As a result, policymakers across Cascadia are increasingly requiring that new buildings be gas-free.
But two major questions loom: how ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Uncontainable Wildfires Are Inevitable. Community Destruction Is Not. - Sightline (Nov 16, 2022) |
|
Nov 16, 2022 · This fire-hardened home survived the Beachie Creek Fire in 2021. Credit: Green Oregon, used with permission.
My family lives in fire country in Idaho, Montana, and Washington. A new era of megafires that no amount of firefighting can control is forcing all of us across Cascadia to learn a new way to live with fire. Wildfires have become more frequent, larger in acreage, and more severe,1The severity of a fire refers to the amount of vegetation (e.g., tree) mortality and soil impacts. and the risk they pose to those in their path is predicted to increase two- to sixfold in most areas of the West.
More firefighting is not the answer. What my family has discovered, and what ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
No, Hydrogen Is Not the Savior Gas Utilities Are Looking For - Sightline (Oct 24, 2022) |
|
Oct 24, 2022 · Hydrogen Tanker Trailer by haymarketrebel used under CC BY 2.0
Cascadia’s gas utilities know their prospects are rapidly dimming. Decarbonization, now official state and provincial policy in much of the region, is an existential threat to businesses chartered by law to distribute carbon-based fuels. The companies are hoping hydrogen will save them, forestalling bankruptcy as the region leaves fossil fuels behind. NW Natural, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), Cascade Natural Gas, Avista, and FortisBC, the region’s biggest gas utilities, are all developing plans for pumping green hydrogen1Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced from renewable energy. See Sightline’s hydrogen primer ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Forest Long Rotation Harvests - Sightline (Oct 18, 2022) |
|
Oct 18, 2022 · “Long rotations” refers to delaying logging and growing forests past a short life, letting them reach something closer to what’s sometimes called the “biological growth maximum,” which is the age that yields the greatest volume of timber from the land over time.
In this series, Sightline senior researcher Kate Anderson describes how long rotations can deliver not just greater timber yields, but also greater carbon storage and water and habitat benefits. She also details the barriers foresters face in trying to make the switch from the typical 40-year rotation to a longer 80-year harvest cycle. Finally, she examines how to financially support long rotations—both for the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Long Forest Harvest Rotations - Sightline (Oct 18, 2022) |
|
Oct 18, 2022 · “Long rotations” refers to delaying logging and growing forests past a short life, letting them reach something closer to what’s sometimes called the “biological growth maximum,” which is the age that yields the greatest volume of timber from the land over time.
In this series, Sightline senior researcher Kate Anderson describes how long rotations can deliver not just greater timber yields, but also greater carbon storage and water and habitat benefits. She also details the barriers foresters face in trying to make the switch from the typical 40-year rotation to a longer 80-year harvest cycle. Finally, she examines how to financially support long rotations—both for the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Northwest States Need to Build New Power Lines, Fast - Sightline (Oct 13, 2022) |
|
Oct 13, 2022 · The Northwest seems finally poised to reap the fruits of years of hard work on climate change. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, states and clean energy developers will soon enjoy a huge influx of federal climate dollars, and climate leaders sit at the helm of many state and local governments. But much like the proverbial kingdom that was lost for want of a nail, the Northwest states’ climate ambitions may suffer defeat over something utterly mundane: not enough high-voltage power lines.
That’s right. We may fail the climate test because we’re missing some wires.
A core strategy for decarbonizing the Northwest, as elsewhere, is to stop burning fossil ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Seven Ways to Pay for Long Rotations - Sightline (Sep 12, 2022) |
|
Sep 12, 2022 · Once on the verge of intensive logging and development, former SDS Lumber Company lands in southwest Washington are now protected by working forest conservation easements. Source: @ianshivephoto / @tandemstock
This is the fourth installment in a six-part series discussing how to increase the age when trees are harvested. “Long rotations” refers to delaying logging and growing forests past a short “financial rotation age” to an older “biological rotation age” that stores more carbon, produces more timber, and improves forest health, water quality, and wildlife habitat. View the full series here.
Where timber plantations were once logged intensively on short rotations, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Northwest Carbon Markets Can’t Support Longer Timber Harvest Rotations - Sightline (Jul 11, 2022) |
|
Jul 11, 2022 · A third-party carbon verifier measures tree girth for a Northern California carbon project. Source: California Air Resources Board.
Port Blakely’s Winston Creek carbon project in Lewis County, WA. Source: Port Blakeley
Nestled in the southwest corner of Washington, home to coho salmon and the occasional spotted owl, the Winston Creek carbon project is extending rotations on 10,000 acres of forest. By delaying harvest from 40 years to 60 years and letting these trees continue to grow during their carbon sequestration prime, Port Blakely, the forest owner, hopes to double the biomass of its forest.
According to American Carbon Registry (ACR) documents, this extension ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Heat Pumps a Win-Win for Cascadia’s Now Hotter, Drier Summers - Sightline (Jun 30, 2022) |
|
Jun 30, 2022 · Image by HarmvdB (license)
In June 2021, Cascadia weathered a scorching string of hundred-plus-degree days. Nearly 800 people died heat-related deaths across British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington combined. The town of Lytton, BC, burned to the ground after the temperature climbed to a record-shattering 121 degrees; streetcar cables in Portland melted; and roads in Washington cracked under the intense heat. Climate scientists found that a heat wave of such intensity would have been “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.”
While extreme heat events like 2021’s “heat dome” are unlikely to occur annually, Cascadia’s mild climate is rapidly becoming a ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Pipeline Giant Behind Keystone XL Wants to Expand a Major Fracked Gas Pipeline in Cascadia - Sightline (Jun 15, 2022) |
|
Jun 15, 2022 · Protesting a new fossil fuel project in our county by Francis Eatherington used under CC BY-NC 2.0
TC Energy, the Canadian fossil fuel giant behind the failed Keystone XL project and the controversial Coastal GasLink project in British Columbia, is quietly preparing to expand the capacity of a major fracked gas pipeline in Cascadia.1TC Energy merged with TC Pipelines, the company behind the GTN expansion, in March 2021. Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN), one of two large gas transmission pipelines that run through Oregon and Washington, pushes fracked Canadian gas from Kingsgate, British Columbia, across northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon to Malin, Oregon, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
A decade of successes against fossil fuel export projects in Cascadia - Sightline (Jun 01, 2022) |
|
Jun 01, 2022 · Stop Kinder Morgan Vancouver Rally by David Niddrie used under CC BY-NC 2.0
Download Full Report
Since 2012 fossil fuel executives from dozens of companies, including Kinder Morgan, Pembina Pipeline Corporation, and Enbridge, have schemed more than 50 large projects to export coal, oil, gas, or their derivatives from Cascadia’s coast in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington.??
But local communities, Tribes, environmentalists, and local governments rejected calls to turn Cascadia into a fossil fuel export terminal. Thanks to a combination of local opposition, see-sawing energy prices, and regulatory hurdles, project backers canceled 40 of those projects—a ... | By Emily Moore, Senior Researcher, Fossil Fuels Transition Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New Report: Forty Canceled Fossil Fuel Export Projects, with Nine Still Kicking - Sightline (Jun 01, 2022) |
|
Jun 01, 2022 · Stop Kinder Morgan Vancouver Rally by David Niddrie used under CC BY-NC 2.0
View Report and Related Resources
Today, Sightline is publishing a new report tallying the various fossil fuel export projects that have targeted the coast of Cascadia in the past decade. It finds a great majority of them canceled thanks to a combination of local opposition, see-sawing energy prices, and regulatory hurdles: 40 of an initial 55 proposed schemes are dead.
Find this article interesting? Support more research like this with a gift!
The report also provides the first comprehensive accounting of the projects’ total carbon emissions impacts, calculating that if all had gone ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Why Do We Choose Short Rotation Forestry Over Carbon Storage, Timber Supply, and Forest Health? - Sightline (May 26, 2022) |
|
May 26, 2022 · Three stands meet in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon: a fresh cut, a young stand, and an adolescent stand (Source: Marcus Kauffman, OR Dept. of Forestry).
Extending timber harvest rotations is on the table as a triple bottom line solution—actually a sextuple bottom line solution. But is it really a good idea, and is it even possible? If so, how do we do it?
In my last article, I posed the question: do long rotations really boost carbon storage and produce more timber? The answer is a resounding “Yes.” This article investigates why today’s forest landowners log on short rotations and what stands in the way of extending rotations. In a future ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Hydrogen’s Dead End: Home Heating - Sightline (May 24, 2022) |
|
May 24, 2022 · Home smart thermostat. Photo by Serena Larkin
“We’re very bullish on renewable hydrogen,” hyped a representative from NW Natural, Oregon’s largest gas utility, when testifying in support of a 2021 hydrogen bill in Oregon. Hydrogen enthusiasm is at an all-time high, with the recent passage of multi-billion dollar subsidies by federal policy makers and major oil and gas corporations backing hydrogen projects, including Northwest utilities. Proponents of the fuel envision a future in which hydrogen—and specifically a strain of it being marketed as “renewable hydrogen”—heats homes and businesses, powers trains and cars, and balances the electric grid.
Renewable ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
No, British Columbia’s LNG Cannot Solve Europe’s Russian Gas Problem - Sightline (Apr 07, 2022) |
|
Apr 07, 2022 · Image by Province of British Columbia used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A chorus of North American fossil fuel boosters is once again pushing for more pipelines and liquified natural gas (LNG) plants, this time purportedly to help Europe quit the 40 percent of its gas it imports from Russia. For example, Deborah Yedlin, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Canada’s fossil-fuel capital Calgary, declared, “We must resurrect [LNG] projects—on the east and west coasts. It is a moral imperative.”
But like previous arguments for completing the mostly languishing LNG proposals on Cascadia’s West Coast, in British Columbia, these new ones do not add up. BC LNG proposals are ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Yes, Long Rotations Can Yield Real Climate Gains for Cascadia - Sightline (Mar 17, 2022) |
|
Mar 17, 2022 · This stand of western hemlock on the Olympic Peninsula was thinned over a decade ago by EFM. Source: EFM.
Forest owners want to know: Will extending my forest harvest rotation produce real climate gains? Timberland owner Richard Pine says, “I’m not entirely convinced.” And he’s not alone.
“Long rotations” refers to delaying logging1For simplicity, this article narrowly focuses on extending rotations in clear-cut (even-aged) harvests. Timberland owners can harvest uneven-aged, multi-story stands on longer rotations too. The rotation age is defined as when the oldest trees get cut. and growing forests past a short life, letting them reach something closer to what’s ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Responsibly Sourced Gas: Boon or Boondoggle? - Sightline (Feb 10, 2022) |
|
Feb 10, 2022 · Image by Richard Hurd used under CC BY 2.0
When Pierce Transit announced late last year that it would be rolling out a carbon neutral gas to power its fleet, it introduced a new term to our vernacular: responsibly sourced gas (RSG). It didn’t take long for skeptics to expose the true carbon footprint of this newly branded gas - it’s nowhere near zero. But were the transit agency’s intentions directionally correct, despite the misleading marketing? Eighty percent of Pierce Transit’s bus fleet is fueled by natural gas today; electric and hybrid electric buses make up only 18 percent. Until the transit agency can transition all of its buses to electric, likely many years out due ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Passing the Private Forest Accord Would Help Oregon Catch Up with Washington and California - Sightline (Feb 09, 2022) |
|
Feb 09, 2022 · Image by Oregon Department of Forestry
Life may soon get easier for Oregon salmon. (And some salamanders and frogs, too.) When it comes to protecting streams and stream-side habitat from logging on private forestland, Oregon could finally catch up with its Cascadian neighbors Washington and California.
What broke the decades-long logjam of inaction? In short, mediated negotiation and cooperation between the timber industry and the conservation community, prodded by the threat of a costly and uncertain fight at the ballot box and new policy that neither side wanted. Governor Kate Brown brokered the discussions and provided a professional mediator, and federal agencies (US ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New WA Bill Would Hold Big Oil Accountable for Oil Spills - Sightline (Jan 14, 2022) |
|
Jan 14, 2022 · Oil Refinery at Dawn by Glen Euloth used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
It’s a fairly universal maxim that if you make a mess, you clean it up. Whether you’re a kid in a classroom or a multinational corporation doing business, you owe some basic courtesies to your community.
Unfortunately in Washington, governments at every level face burgeoning economic and financial risks from the fossil fuel industry. Gaps in our legal framework too often leave communities footing the bill for explosions and spills. A new bill in the Washington legislature, HB 1691, introduced by Representative Mia Gregerson (D-33), aims to change that.
Specifically, the bill targets the oil-carrying ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
With Oil Unreliable, Refinery Communities Deserve a Transition Plan - Sightline (Jan 04, 2022) |
|
Jan 04, 2022 · Sunset with pylon in Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Polina Kurapova used under CC BY-SA 4.0
The long-term stability of Washington’s five oil refineries is in doubt. But that doesn’t mean the workers and local communities who support this industry have to share its fate. Just a few hours south, the town of Centralia offers a model of a successful economic transition as a community untangles from its dependency on a few dominant fossil fuel employers. If local leaders start planning now, communities like Anacortes and Ferndale could not merely avoid the economic hardship typical when a major employer leaves town, but plan ahead to shape the kind of healthy, vibrant, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Centralia, a Fossil Fuel Transition Success Story - Sightline (Dec 15, 2021) |
|
Dec 15, 2021 · Centralia Massacre Mural The Resurrection of Wesley Everest by Richard Coit used under CC BY-SA 4.0 (A mural in Centralia, Washington sponsored by local businessmen, history buffs and unions to memorialize Wesley Everest and the IWW side of the 1919 Centralia Massacre. By Mike Alewitz, completed December 12, 1997)
When Centralia’s coal mine closed in 2006, it was clear that the town’s coal-fired power plant would soon follow. Realizing that the power plant’s closure would devastate the local economy, then-Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and the Washington State Legislature negotiated with power plant operator TransAlta to provide $55 million for transition ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Transitioning From Puget Sound Oil Refineries - Sightline (Dec 01, 2021) |
|
Dec 01, 2021 · A record shattering heat wave, killing hundreds across British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. Massive, uncontrollable wildfires blanketing in smoke the entire West Coast, the sky an eerie, hellish orange as if set in a dystopian science fiction movie. A grieving orca carrying her dead calf for 17 heartrending days, a desperate message from a species struggling to survive in an anthropogenic world.
It is impossible to meet our climate targets without retiring refineries.
Oil refining on Puget Sound is inextricably tied to the history of colonialism.
One bleak, one hopeful, both dependent on our choices today.
The refining industry pays surprisingly little ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
King County Sets the Standard for Clean Energy Financing - Sightline (Nov 30, 2021) |
|
Nov 30, 2021 · King County syncs climate goals using the C-PACER clean energy financing mechanism.
King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove said it well: “Local governments like King County have, I believe, a moral responsibility to future generations and that’s a responsibility to reduce the pollution that’s causing climate change.” Unfortunately, that responsibility to decarbonize isn’t always baked in, even when it comes to local jurisdictions’ available clean energy financing mechanisms.
Washington’s 2020 state law for Commercial Property-Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency (C-PACER), for example, allows jurisdictions to sidestep the climate-cutting responsibility by leveraging ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Oregon Experiments with Healthy Homes Repair Fund - Sightline (Nov 12, 2021) |
|
Nov 12, 2021 · Image by Community Energy Project
If your home is in bad shape, your health is likely to be, too. That’s the basis behind the Healthy Homes Act, HB 2842, which funds home repair and safety issues that energy efficiency programs don’t typically address.
Healthy Homes was the third leg of the Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity Campaign, rounding out legislative wins by environmental justice advocates to make electricity more affordable and emission-free by 2040. The bill created an Interagency Task Force and a $10 million dollar Healthy Homes Repair Fund. To qualify, projects need to fit one of three categories: maximizing energy efficiency, extending the usable life of ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Danger of the Marine Vessels that Serve Refineries - Sightline (Nov 03, 2021) |
|
Nov 03, 2021 · Pollution occurs in every phase of the oil refining process. In this series, we analyze the impacts of pollution in three categories: direct pollution from the refinery operations themselves; “upstream” and “downstream” pollution from transporting crude oil and refined products;1Upstream” refers to oil extraction and transportation to the refineries. “Downstream” refers to transportation of refined products from refineries to consumers and beyond. and indirect pollution from consuming the refineries’ products. It’s important to consider all three categories because Northwest refineries do not exist in isolation. Rather, they sit at the center of a sprawling web of petroleum ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Will Vancouver Grow as Fast as Its Suburbs? - Sightline (Nov 02, 2021) |
|
Nov 02, 2021 · Image by Jennifer C.
Vancouver is perceived throughout North America as a vanguard in refocusing growth in the urban core. But the reality is that for decades, there has been a tragic mismatch between where people want to live—Vancouver proper—and where the region has built most new housing—the surrounding suburbs.
Metro Vancouver is currently updating its regional growth strategy, the official road map for how the region will grow through 2050. But while lifting bans on townhomes and small apartments in detached-house neighborhoods has widespread support across the city of Vancouver, a recently released draft plan calls for the city of Vancouver to be ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Corporate Climate Commitments: 2021 Update - Sightline (Nov 01, 2021) |
|
Nov 01, 2021 · Amazon Spheres by Joe Mabel
Major corporations in the Pacific Northwest are failing their climate commitments. Last year, Sightline examined the climate commitments of 11 of the Fortune 500 corporations with headquarters or significant footprints in the Pacific Northwest. In the year since, more than half of these 11 corporations increased their Scope 1 + Scope 2 emissions. Their cumulative increase in Scope 1 + Scope 2 emissions surpassed 11 percent.
Moreover, last year we lauded Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks for their climate leadership. All three had set lofty goals to reach carbon neutrality (or better) by mid-century, and all were on track to source 100 percent ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Danger of the Pipelines and Trains that Serve Refineries - Sightline (Oct 26, 2021) |
|
Oct 26, 2021 · Pollution occurs in every phase of the oil refining process. In this series, we analyze the impacts of pollution in three categories: direct pollution from the refinery operations themselves; “upstream” and “downstream” pollution from transporting crude oil and refined products;1“Upstream” refers to oil extraction and transportation to the refineries. “Downstream” refers to transportation of refined products from refineries to consumers and beyond. and indirect pollution from consuming the refineries’ products. It’s important to consider all three categories because Northwest refineries do not exist in isolation. Rather, they sit at the center of a sprawling web of petroleum ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Direct Impacts of Northwest Refinery Pollution - Sightline (Oct 20, 2021) |
|
Oct 20, 2021 · Image by RV With Tito
About 90 percent of the petroleum products consumed in Cascadia - our gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and more - are refined at five refineries sitting on the shores of the Salish Sea. These refineries are super polluters. They comprise four of the top eight sources of carbon pollution in the state and are responsible for?over 26 percent?of Washington state’s greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial facilities. And, as will be shown in this chapter, Washington’s oil refineries have a checkered past of violating the regulations designed to protect their workers, the environment, and people living in their vicinity.
Pollution occurs in every phase ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Confining Rental Homes to Busy Streets Is a Devil’s Bargain - Sightline (Oct 19, 2021) |
|
Oct 19, 2021 · The 2005 community vision for Vancouver’s Arbutus Ridge, Kerrisdale, and Shaughnessy neighborhoods recommends locating new apartments on or near arterial roads so that they can “shield, to some extent, adjacent single family homes from the noise of arterial traffic, …act[ing] as a buffer.”
Nobody’s home should be a “buffer” against traffic noise and pollution for someone else’s. According to a forthcoming report by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the health impacts of exposure to traffic pollution include:
Underscoring these impacts, recent research from Harvard University found that pollution from fossil fuel combustion is responsible for an ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Oil Refinery Workforce 411 - Sightline (Oct 13, 2021) |
|
Oct 13, 2021 · Phasing out operations at Washington’s refineries would be good for the state’s climate goals, for the health of Puget Sound, and for the rights of native peoples in the region. But it would have profound impacts on the people who work at the facilities, and those effects would extend to nearby communities where the refineries contribute a lot to the economy.
In this chapter, we will explore the significance of the refining industry for workers and local communities. It’s only fair to acknowledge at the outset of this chapter that the authors are white-collar knowledge workers who do not live near or work at the refineries. Our livelihoods would not be harmed by ... Read more ...
|
|
|