City leaders across the United States see that energy efficiency means not only carbon reduction but also good government and sound economic policy

In this real-life David versus Goliath story, we—all of us—scored an important victory against the oil company making plans to build what would be the largest oil-by-rail terminal in the nation. The fight is not over yet, but this win shows that people have the power to stand up to big oil!

The Northwest is absolutely humming with climate activism of every sort. Our annual breakfast speakers challenged us to keep up the fight against fossil-fuel dominance, injustice and political inertia, and move from opposition to opportunity.

A new report reveals that the Pacific Northwest is the next frontier of the tar sands invasion. Desperate for routes to get their crude oil from land-locked Alberta to refineries and export markets, the tar sands industry has its sights set on our communities and coastline.

Northwesterners can rest easy now that the threat of the zombie coal dock-pocalypse is over! The $2 million dollars public subsidy that Big Coal was trying to gain, and gain again, to build a dirty coal dock on the Columbia River at Port Westward was rejected (again) last week, and the funds reallocated to a public transit project instead.

Oregon has a lot of forests, and great conditions for growing long-lived trees, and those forests store a lot of carbon. Aggressive and unsustainable logging of those forests can contribute heavily to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. 

Sometimes our collective battles against Big Oil and Big Coal seem like Frodo and Sam’s many challenges on the way to Mount Doom. 

Domestic demand for coal will never be what it was, and export markets hold little promise for return on investment. It’s time now for US coal proponents, and investors, to move on.