Barbara Bernstein

The fossil fuel industry is a very risky business, and often these risks materialize. Think of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 2016 oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, and the 2017 gas pipeline explosion in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. It might seem logical th... Read more

Last fall we aired Holding the Thin Green Line, a two part radio documentary about the increasing pressure on the Pacific Northwest to become an export hub for the fossil fuel industry - and the thin green line of resistance that is standing in the way of this development. ... Read more

In a time of global pandemic, this summer's fire season - which is nearly upon us - poses new dire threats. Federal and state agencies have resurrected the obsolete policy of aggressively attacking all wildfires in all places in order to limit wildfire smoke. This fire poli... Read more

While the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the world is wracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, another kind of pandemic threatens our region - an increasing number of oil trains, each loaded with 3 million gallons of crude oil, traveling down the Columbia River and through Port... Read more

In the wake of proposals to build unpopular massive LNG and methanol projects around the Northwest, the gas industry feels like it's under attack. In fact a PR campaign being promoted by gas utilities in Washington and Oregon claims that their industry is facing an existent... Read more

When the Oregon State Legislature goes into a special session this summer to address new COVID-19 policies, medical and public health professionals from across the state are calling on Governor Kate Brown and Oregon lawmakers to include fire and smoke preparedness measures ... Read more

By the time this episode of Locus Focus airs it will be three weeks since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police and a wave of massive, militant protests radiated from Minneapolis across the country and the world. This amazing show of support for the Black Lives Ma... Read more

This past week we are witnessing the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic collapse and unprecedented widespread, militant demonstrations expressing anger and grief over the death of George Floyd—the most recent manifestation of the systemic racism that permeates th... Read more

The COVID-19 Pandemic is stretching the ways we need to think in so many ways, economically, socially, medically and spiritually. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow with the Post Carbon Institute, about how the coronavirus pandemic p... Read more

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic struck, there have been important developments in the fifteen year struggle to stop the Jordan Cove LNG Export Terminal and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline. When we last talked about this issue, the state of Oregon had just denied two critical per... Read more