Northwest Natural Gas's Smart Energy program advertises itself as a way for
customers to “offset” their natural gas emissions by funding projects
that the company says “reduce, or prevent the release of, greenhouse
gases.” But in fact, as customers found out, Smart Energ...
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More than three decades ago Urban Naturalist Mike Houck coined the term
Greenfrastructure to describe the important role that urban green spaces play
in providing climate resilience. Green infrastructure emphasizes the
importance of viewing our parks, forests, wetlands a...
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When voters overwhelmingly passed a new city charter in 2022, optimism
abounded that the new form of government would more truly represent all of
Portland, not just the business elite who had been running things pretty much
for over 150 years. The city was supposed to be...
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An unholy marriage between big tech and nukes threatens to upend the Pacific
Northwest as we know it. 45 years ago, soon after a serious accident at one
of the nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island caused the core to partially
melt down, Oregonians overwhelmingly passed ...
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Every year around this time environmental lawyers, organizers and activists
converge on Eugene, Oregon for the Public Interest Environmental Law
Conference, held at the University of Oregon Law School. Three days of panel
discussions run the gamut from Indigenous Rights...
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Baltimore Woods is a green fringe of oak and maple trees towering over the
neighborhood north of Cathedral Park. It anchors the Willamette bluff,
standing as a buffer between riverside industry and downtown St. Johns
residents. and providing shelter to native plants and ...
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Portland has a new form of city government and one manifestation of this is
the most progressive city council the city has seen in years. But beneath the
veneer of a new governing structure an old entrenched bureaucracy appears to
remain. This came into focus on February...
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On the morning of February 3, right in the middle of Locus Focus, we learned
that Portland's new mayor and acting city administrator approved the much
contested Land Use Compatibility Statement for Zenith Energy's expansion
along the banks of the Willamette River. This w...
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For several years the city of Portland has been very opaque in its dealings
with Zenith Energy. Two years ago, in a backroom deal, the city gave Zenith
the green light to continue to expand its rail shipments of fossil fuels,
under the guise that the company would switch...
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As we confront the existential crisis of climate chaos there are two paths we
can take. We can make dramatic changes that meaningfully reduce carbon
emissions. Or we can accept the fossil fuel industry’s self-serving climate
solutions—renewable diesel, hydrogen, renewabl...
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