Fossil fuel industries seek to use Pacific NW as export hub

Let’s try a word association: what comes to mind when you hear “Pacific Northwest?” Perhaps green, rain, coffee, environmentalists, mountains, salmon, forests. These are all things we pride ourselves on in the Northwest.

But what about coal, tar sands, and pollution?

After years of losing its footholds in the region, let alone expanding their operations, the fossil fuel industry hopes to make the Pacific Northwest its latest export hub. As reported in The Oregonian on Wednesday,

"Ambre Energy, an Australian coal company, is exploring mine acquisitions in the basin and the purchase of the 416-acre Chinook Ventures port site in Longview, Wash., for a bulk export terminal.”

The facility is expected to transport 30 million tons of coal per year.

Peabody Energy, the largest coal producer in the U.S., is also looking to site an export terminal on the West Coast by the end of the year. Due to space limitations in the busy ports of Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., companies are turning to smaller cities like Longview for their operations.

Longview, located approximately 50 miles north from Portland and 66 miles from the Pacific Ocean, has an economy highly dependent on manufacturing and shipping. The site of a closed smelter is being redeveloped into a port terminal by Chinook Ventures as an attempt to bring new business to Longview.

Despite these efforts, the region’s track record of thwarting the fossil fuel expansion poses a significant barrier to the new coal export plan.

Regional Opposition to Coal
The Northwest is an unlikely target for the coal industry. Only three coal plants operate in the region, one in Oregon and two in Washington at the same facility. There are no coal-fired power pants in Idaho.

In 2007, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law SB 6001 which prohibited the construction of any coal plants with greenhouse gas emissions higher than natural gas plants. This effectively killed the Pacific Mountain Energy Center, a proposed integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal plant whose construction was delayed by grassroots organizations until the law went into effect.

Later that year, another integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal plant, was proposed for the small town of Wallula, WA. This facility was intended as a pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of carbon capture and storage, which would result in emissions lower than a natural gas facility. After public opposition and evaluation of the project’s risks, the Wallula Port Commission decided to stop the plant.

The Sierra Club launched its Beyond Coal Campaign in the Northwest in 2008, with the goal of making it the first coal-free region in the United States.

For well over a year, activists in Oregon have been working to shut down the Boardman coal plant by 2015, the lone coal plant in the entire state. Portland General Electric (PGE), the company operating the Boardman plant has been frustrated by negotiations with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to either shut down the plant in five years or install pollution control technology.

Hundreds of local residents attended DEQ hearings and meeting of the Oregon Public Utility Commission demonstrating their support for closing Boardman. Student governments at 10 colleges, university and high schools in Oregon, representing 100,000 students passed resolutions in support of the closure.

PGE is now threatening the DEQ that they will install the pollution controls and maintains operations until 2040 if the DEQ rejects their most recent proposal.

“The fossil fuel companies are trying to find some way to keep a future for the industry in the region,” said Nick Englefriend, a volunteer with the Beyond Coal Campaign. “One of the ways they are trying to do this is by propping up their operations for as long as possible and then greenwashing their company image. Another way is to turn the Northwest into an export zone and to sell coal from the Powder River Basin overseas, even though the market for coal is drying up in our region.”

Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, explained the massive implications of the project. “The Ambre proposal is expected to export ten times the volume of coal that the Boardman power plant uses. Oregon and Washington have worked for years to stop burning coal. It’s one step forward and ten steps back if we allow coal export in our region.”

Squaring Off Against Tar Sands
Like the coal industry, the tar sands industry is moving forward with plans to use the Northwest as a conduit for tar sands equipment and crude oil exports. Tar sand oil generates three times the greenhouse gases as conventional oil and has devastated an area the size of Florida in Alberta, Canada.

Enbridge, the same company responsible for the oil spill in Michigan earlier this summer, is proposing a tar sands pipeline across British Columbia to the Port of Kitimat. From Kitimat, tankers would transport tar sands crude to markets in Asia. The coast of British Columbia has been protected from tanker traffic for over 40 years. Opposition from local environmental and indigenous groups has stalled the construction of the pipeline, which is planned to cross First Nations territories.

Not only is the tar sands industry seeking to export its crude to Asian markets, but they hope to transport the mining equipment along the highways of the Pacific Northwest. However, in August, Judge John Bradbury revoked permits issued by the State of Idaho to allow ConocoPhillips to ship oversized equipment along Highway 12, a road that follows a federally protected river corridor in northern Idaho. Groups like Save Our Wild Salmon are committed to preventing the Columbia and Snake Rivers from becoming “the conveyor belt for one of the world's largest intentional environmental disasters.”

Although the tar sands industry is new to the Northwest, already coalitions of environmentalists, business-owners, and indigenous peoples are coming together to stop its expansion.

Coal Exports in Washington
Most of the coal to be exported from the proposed Ambre port would come from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Coal from this region is low in sulfur and burns at a high temperature, making it attractive for use in steelmaking. This coal would be exported to China and India, where it would be used to make steel at a lower cost than the United States’ domestic steel industry.

The Ambre project's impact on the Columbia River would come from both the transportation of coal and its use in China, according to VandenHeuvel. “Coal use in Asia is a major source of mercury in the Columbia River system," he said. "If we send our U.S. coal overseas, the mercury from loosely regulated plants will ultimately settle right back into our rivers and pose a serious health risk to people who eat fish.”

Englefried, who is now active in the movement to stop the Longview coal terminal, explained that one of the frequent comments made about opposition to the Boardman plant is that even if it shut down by 2015, the impact will be overwhelmed by the carbon-intensive development in China and India.

“If you care so much about coal in India and China,” he said, “the Northwest now has the chance to influence what's going on over there. Stop the exports.”

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What the Press Didn’t Tell You About the Largest Youth Movement in Decades (Part Two)

Part Two: Strength in a Diversity of Tactics

This is the part two of a three-part series taking an in-depth look at the youth climate movement and the stories the mainstream media missed at Power Shift 2009. For the introduction and links to the rest of the series, head here or see links at end of this post.

On display at Power Shift 2009 was the diversity of tactics employed by the youth climate movement. From rallies and protests in the streets, to well-informed citizen lobbyists penetrating the halls of Congress, this movement finds strength in a diversity of tactics. In their efforts, these young leaders draw on time-tested community organizing techniques as well as a suite of cutting-edge, 21st century technologies to unite the movement, grow at a rapid pace, and secure climate and clean energy victories.


From the Streets to the Halls of Congress

At 1:30 pm on Monday, March 2nd, I stood in the back of a congressional hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building, listening to powerful testimony from five young leaders briefing the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming [watch highlights from the hearing here]

As the briefing commenced in the halls of the Rayburn House Office Building, thousands of students were in the process of holding over 350 lobby visits with elected officials from all fifty states.

At 2:00 pm, I got a text message informing me that just blocks away, hundreds more Power Shifters had joined an estimated 2,500, both young and old, and taken to the streets of D.C. to march for an end to the injustices of our current dirty energy system.

The march was the start of the Capitol Climate Action, and the assembled protesters soon surrounded the Capitol Plant, which heats the U.S. Capitol Building and the complex of congressional offices by burning a mix of coal and natural gas. The event’s organizers said they targeted the plant in a symbolic stand, calling for an end to dirty energy and a transition to a cleaner, more just energy system.

Image Credit: Franziska Seel

“This power shift, it has begun, we’ll get our energy from wind and sun!” chanted protesters, calling for an end to coal.

Groups of protesters illegally blocked every gate to the plant and rallied in the streets surrounding the plant for hours, as speakers including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, author Wendell Berry, and outspoken climate scientist James Hansen addressed the crowd. These more well-known figures were joined by activists and citizens from regions affected by coal’s mining and use, including residents of Appalachian states and Navajo living near Black Water Mesa in New Mexico.

The speakers all cited the many impacts and injustices of today’s dirty energy system – from asthma and mercury poisoning to the destructive impacts of surface mining and mountaintop removal, and of course, coal’s massive contribution to climate change.

While there were no arrests made, the organizers of the event declared the action a success. “The police said so many demonstrators showed up that they had no hope of jailing them all,” writes author and activist Bill McKibben in his account of the day’s events. “So we merrily violated the law all afternoon.”

The coincidence of Monday’s lobby day, hearing and civil disobedience evidences the diversity of tactics employed by this growing movement.

"Youth are willing to lobby in the halls of Congress, but we're also not afraid to get arrested in the streets,” said Jaime Henn with 350.org, one of the more than forty groups sponsoring the Capitol Climate Action. “It's this diversity of tactics that will continue to make us effective.”


Not Just Protesters of Injustice, But Practitioners of Solutions

Energy Action Coalition executive director Jessy Tolkan has spent years registering and turning out voters, organizing events like Power Shift and campaigns like Power Vote, and fighting for a seat at the political table for today’s youngest generation. But as proud as she is of these efforts to amplify the movement’s political voice, she makes sure to point out that the efforts of this movement do not stop at lobbying the political process for change.

“Over the course of the last three days, 12,000 of us gathered here in our nation's capitol ... and 24 million of went to the polls in November” Tolkan said at the Select Committee hearing. “But we are also in our communities as practitioners of the innovative solutions we are calling for.”

In fact, the tactics employed by many in this movement may not even look like activism to the outside eye. What occupies much of Timothy Den-Herder Thomas’s activism, for example, looks a lot more like a new brand of socially and environmentally conscious entrepreneurialism.

Thomas is a senior at Macalaster College and a leader with the Sierra Student Coalition. He wields financial spreadsheets and non-profit business models in addition to traditional tools of community organizing.

On March 2nd, Thomas told Chairman Markey's committee about his successful efforts to establish a revolving clean energy loan fund at Macalaster. The fund enables investments in energy efficiency and clean energy projects at the Minnesota college, pooling the resulting energy savings to reinvest in more projects.

The fund has been a huge success, cutting energy use and emissions at the campus while netting a forty percent annual return on investment in its first year. “That’s four times what the stock market performs,” said Thomas, pausing for a moment, ”when it’s NOT collapsing!”

Thomas is now working with students as part of a program called Summer of Solutions to take the revolving fund model off campus and launch a new effort to “futurefit” entire neighborhoods – that’s Thomas’s word for the energy efficiency and clean energy retrofits that prepare homes and businesses for a clean, efficient energy future.

“There are billions of dollars just sitting on the table,” Thomas said, referring to profitable energy efficiency opportunities in millions of American homes and businesses. “But we’re not picking that money up. We’re letting it sit there.”

Summer of Solutions will be organizing efforts in at least a dozen communities this coming summer and similar initiatives are underway in other locations.

All across the country, innovative young social entrepreneurs like Thomas are working to transform their campuses and communities, set up green jobs training programs and otherwise get busy creating the clean energy future they are calling for as activists.

Their message: while we call on our elected officials to change laws, give us more resources, and invest in a clean energy economy, we’re not going to wait to get started building the future ourselves.


A 21st Century Networked Movement

This savvy youth movement draws from the long history of community organizing in the United States and the wisdom of past social movements, combining these time-tested tactics with cutting-edge 21st century digital organizing and communication tools with remarkable effectiveness.

“Each one of you is a walking technological superpower,” said green jobs advocate Van Jones, speaking to the Power Shift crowd packing the cavernous main hall at the DC Convention Center on the event’s opening night. “You have more technology on your person right now than the U.S. government had when we put a man on the moon.”

“Just think: ten years ago when a person could just sit on a bench and pull all of the knowledge of the world onto their laps, they’d be considered a god. Now, that’s just you, with a laptop, and Google!” Jones said, urging the crowd to “cease using those technologies as toys and start using them as tools.”

The most networked generation in history, the members of this youth movement are already utilizing 21st century technologies to unite online and strengthen their offline organizing.

Last April, as part of an annual nationwide day of action called Fossil Fools Day, hundreds of young activists traveled to stand with communities in Appalachia to protest the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. Through online networks, these activists were able to unite with students located about as far away from the coal fields of Appalachia as you can get: Washington state.

Student organizers with the youth-led Cascade Climate Network quickly launched a “photo petition” to stand in solidarity with their allies in Appalachia, snapping digital photos of hundreds of students at more than a dozen campuses holding signs reading “We can do better than coal!” and “Solar energy leaves the tops on mountains.” Through email, they collected the digital photos streaming in from across the state and quickly designed and produced a photo petition “yearbook” which students then delivered to members of Washington’s congressional delegation [click here to download the photo petition (PDF)].

The Cascade Climate Network students urged Congressman Dave Reichert, a Republican, to co-sponsor legislation that would curb mountaintop removal by reinstating environmental regulations gutted by the Bush Administration.

“Congressman Reichert had actually seen mountaintop removal flying from Washington DC to Seattle, but that was most likely the first time he had heard about mountaintop removal from his own constituents,” said JW Randolph, Legislative Associate with Appalachian Voices. “Students in Washington took up an issue that’s devastating communities in Appalachia thousands of miles away, and made it clear they weren’t going to tolerate injustice like that anywhere in this great nation. That’s what makes our elected officials take action.”

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the Cascade Climate Network students, Congressman Reichert agreed to be one of three chief sponsors of the Clean Water Protection Act, which was re-introduced in the 111th Congress last Wednesday with a record 117 co-sponsors.

The unprecedented, networked nature of this movement allows young activists across the country to connect with their peers, share information and best practices, discover and harness synergies, and grow in size and power faster than past movements.

And they’ll have to do so quickly. As we’ll explore in Part Three of this series, the movement has a challenging road ahead. It’ll take the best combination of time-tested tactics and cutting-edge techniques, as well as a big dose of old-fashioned people power to win the battles ahead. Stay tuned for Part Three…

The rest of the three-part series:

• Introduction
  
• Part One
  
• Part Three

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State Climate Victory: Green Jobs and Climate Action for Washington!

[This is a guest post by JP Kemmick, cross-posted from ItsGettingHotInHere.org...]

Last month while lobbying our Washington state legislators for climate change solutions, a legislative aid asked me, “Well, do you want climate change action or green jobs?” Thankfully some of our legislators understand you can’t have one without the other.

Yesterday, Washington state passed a historic climate change action bill. The Climate Action and Green Jobs Bill passed out of the Senate unamended and is now awaiting the signature of Governor Christine Gregoire. Gregoire requested the legislation this session and has supported it all along the way, so there is little doubt that the bill will pass into law early next week.

The bill makes Washington just the fourth state in the nation to enact binding limits on greenhouse emissions in the state, after California, New Jersey and Hawaii. The bill states that the state shall reduce greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020; 25% below 1990 levels by 2035; and 50% below 1990 levels by 2050 and charges the state Department of Ecology with developing plans to achieve these reductions.

The bill also contains a green jobs portion that will help colleges and technical programs across the state which are already interested in green jobs programs really get off the ground and start churning out a new workforce ready for the new green economy. The bill is groundbreaking for coupling reduction emissions targets with support for new green jobs.

The Cascade Climate Network and friends have worked hard to support this bill and it we are excited to have won our first major state climate victory!

However, like most victories these days, there’s plenty more work to do to keep Washington moving forward on the path to a sustainable, just, and prosperous future.

The climate action portion of the bill sets up a strong framework to reduce emissions in Washington, but requires additional follow through from the legislature later this year and next as Washington prepares to work with the Western Climate Initiative cap and trade program.

Supporters of the bill will also have to keep fighting for funding to support the bill’s programs, including the green jobs portion. The House and Senate gave very inadequate funding and the financial commitment from the governor is also much less than the bill initially asked for at only $250,000.

We must continue to pressure our legislators as the session nears its end to guarantee that the bill is fully funded so it can be as effective as it promises.

Click here to get talking points and call Governor Gregoire to urge her to do everything she can to fully fund the Climate Action and Green Jobs Act.

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Cascade POWER SHIFT Summit Wraps Up Two Weeks of Intense Northwest Climate Action!

Cascade POWER SHIFT 2008, the Northwest's largest youth climate summit, ended on February 11th, wrapping up two weeks of intense climate action across the Northwest that also included nearly 50 Focus the Nation events across the region on January 31st, a giant rally in Oregon's Capitol to oppose new liquefied natural gas importation on February 6th, and Oregon and Washington's first-ever youth global warming lobby days in both Salem and Olympia on February 11th.

That's a lot of climate ass-kicking! No wonder I'm exhausted today...



Cascade Power Shift: Mobilizing Youth for Climate Justice took place February 8-10th at the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon, and brought together over 200 young people from more than 20 colleges, universities and high schools across Oregon and Washington. The weekend summit was followed by a Citizen Action Lobby Day on Feb. 11th in both Salem and Olympia brought dozens of students and youth to their state capitols to amp up both youth political engagement as well as politicians’ response.

Entirely volunteer-driven and youth-organized, the weekend was sponsored by the Cascade Climate Network, the new network of Northwest youth climate activists, and pulled together people from across the region for a blow-out event aimed at training, engaging and activating hundreds of youth in the region to take on the most important challenge and opportunity of our generation: climate change.

A great line-up of keynote speakers and panels introduced summit attendees to important climate change issues in the region, such as the prospect of green jobs and social justice opportunities as well as false solutions like proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal plants. Experienced students and community activists also provided dozens of skill-building trainings and facilitated campaign kick-off sessions for new regional campaigns, including efforts to win state climate victories, rise to the climate challenge on campuses, seize opportunities to create new green jobs and fight off false solutions like LNG.

We learned, we met new friends, we were energized by our fellow activists. Oh ya, and of course, we partied!

“The amount of passion and energy popping-up in so many communities throughout the Cascade Region is powerful and hopeful,” said Jesse Hough, summit organizer and OSPIRG student leader at the University of Oregon. “Creative, thoughtful and inspired youth are stepping-up, and it’s especially exciting to work with people who have never thought of themselves as activists before.”

On Monday, Cascade Climate Network members followed up the Cascade POWER SHIFT summit with youth global warming Citizen Action Days in Olympia and Salem, taking their energy and passion directly to the statehouse. We fanned out throughout both state capitols on Monday to meet with our elected officials, testify in committee hearings and support state climate solutions (download the archived audio here to listen to the passionate testimony of three CCN members in Oregon's House Energy and Environment Committee! Fast forward to about 39 minutes in to the hearing...)

In Oregon, we began our lobby day with a press event, featuring Cascade Climate Network members, and a fun game of "Dirty Energy Dodgeball" on the steps of the Capitol! Not willing to stick to the boring old script for press events, CCN Citizen Action Day in Oregon began with lobby day participants “taking a shot at global warming,” lobbing dodge balls at a human-sized dirty energy target as other CCN-members dressed dirty energy “lobbyists” defended. Now THAT'S how you kick-off a lobby day!



Judging from the feedback from the weekend, attendees came out of the weekend jazzed and energized with new connections, friends and allies and plenty of new ideas for action. At least several minds were blown! Mission accomplished for the now-exhausted Cascade POWER SHIFT organizers...

I've been simply stunned by the amazing individuals I've met since about twenty of us came together to form the Cascade Climate Network just last October. We are getting connected, getting engaged and getting active, and I cannot wait to see what the next four months has in store for Northwest youth climate activism. Here's to building a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for all!

_______________________________

The Cascade Climate Network is a group of college students and recent graduates working toward climate change solutions. We are completely volunteer-driven and are active at over 20 college and university campuses in Washington and Oregon.

For more information, go to www.CascadeClimate.org

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Don't Miss Cascade POWER SHIFT: Mobilizing Youth for Climate Justice!

Calling all Northwest youth climate activists: don't miss Cascade POWER SHIFT: Mobilizing Youth for Climate Justice, Feb 8-11, Eugene, Oregon!


February 8th-11th, hundreds of Northwest youth will converge on Eugene, Oregon for the Cascade POWER SHIFT summit before storming their state capitols for Cascade Climate Network Citizen Action Day!

Organized by the Cascade Climate Network (with help from friends!), Cascade POWER SHIFT will bring together hundreds of Northwest youth for a weekend focused on solutions to the climate crisis and efforts to build a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for all.

Cascade POWER SHIFT will feature informative panels, skill-building workshops, kick-offs for exciting climate action campaigns, Citizen Action Days in Salem and Olympia and a chance to connect with hundreds of other Northwest students and youth working for a sustainable, just, and prosperous future!

Cascade POWER SHIFT will kick-off the evening of Friday Feb 8th with exciting keynotes and conclude Sunday evening, Feb 10th (click here for an agenda). The weekend summit will be followed on Monday Feb 11th by Citizen Action Days in Salem and Olympia to help push for climate victories in the state legislatures of Oregon and Washington in 2008.

Cascade POWER SHIFT will be held on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon. Transportation scholarships and car pool options are available.

It is time! We HAVE to come together, show solidarity, and take ACTION on the climate crisis NOW if we want to thwart a world of greed, hostility, and war and create a world of sustainability, justice and prosperity for all.

Come. Get inspired, get connected, and get active!

REGISTER TODAY and make sure you don't miss Cascade POWER SHIFT 2008!

To register, head to http://cascadeclimate.org/PowerShift/ today. See you in Eugene!

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Political Will Needed on Global Warming

(LTE Published in The Christian Science Monitor Dec 21)

Regarding the Dec. 18 book review, "Newt Gingrich explains why red staters must turn green": I am heartened to see this article (and Mr. Gingrich) touch on the need for cooperation on global-warming policy.

Unfortunately, the political status quo cannot and will not address greenhouse- gas emissions enough to prevent the worst-case scenarios. Never before has an issue required collective action on the scale this emergency demands, and never before has our country been so divided and unable to cooperate. The scientific evidence rolling in is daunting, but I have hope.

The technologies and policies to stop global warming, grow a green economy, and lift people out of poverty already exist. What's missing is the political will in Washington and a unified demand for action from people on both sides of the aisle.

On Jan. 31, 2008, more than 1,000 college campuses in all 50 states plan to hold simultaneous teach-ins as a part of Focus the Nation. Members of Congress, along with countless local and state legislators, have already been invited to participate in solution-oriented roundtable discussions on global-warming policy.

As a parent, I urge all concerned citizens, journalists, and politicians to help us focus on global-warming solutions together.

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Support Youth Climate Activism While You Shop This Holiday Season

Dear WattHead readers,

If you (or your family and/or friends) are going to be purchasing any books online as gifts for friends and loved ones this holiday season, please help support the youth climate activism of the Cascade Climate Network while you shop

I've set up a "partner bookseller" account here at WattHead with Powell's Books online. Any purchases made at Powell's online from anyone who "clicked through" to Powell's site from a link at my blog will mean that 7.5% any purchases made during that visit to Powell's will go to me as commission, and that money will in turn go to support the Cascade Climate Network I'm involved with.

All you need to do is start your shopping experience by searching for the book you want using the Powell's search box, or clicking through any of the recommended books or topics at the "WattHead Bookstore" (it's on the lefthand column, a little way down the page). After you get to Powells' site, shop as normal, and the commission should flow through to me and the Cascade Climate Network (a screen shot of the search tool at my blog is attached to this email). Thanks, and happy holidays!

About the Cascade Climate Network

The Cascade Climate Network (CCN) is the first-ever effort by youth in the Pacific Northwest to launch a coordinated, region-wide campaign to address the climate crisis. The CCN consists of students and youth from across the Cascade Region* who are focused on actively addressing climate change in their bio-region, states, and schools.

Currently, the CCN is working to gather support for the Cascade Climate Declaration, a document emphasizing the need to address climate change in a clean, local, just, and ecologically sustainable manner.

The CCN will use the Declaration to build support from youth and students, as well as faculty, community members, and politicians in Washington and Oregon. By building broad support for the Declaration, the Cascade Climate Network (CCN) plans to hold elected officials, university and college presidents – and ourselves! – accountable to a set of five enduring principles, which should guide a rapid transition to a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for all.

Through our efforts, we hope to form a more unified regional youth climate movement that both reinforces our separate efforts at our own schools and campuses, and achieves real progress in our states, the region, and the nation.

Colleges and universities involved in the Cascade Climate Network include:

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA

The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

Centralia College, Centralia, WA

Whitworth College, Spokane, WA

Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

Portland State University, Portland, OR

University of Portland, Portland, OR

Portland Community College, Cascade Campus, Portland, OR

Portland Community College, Sylvania Campus, Portland, OR

Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR

Reed College, Portland, OR

Willamette University, Salem, OR

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Lane Community College, Eugene, OR

Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR

Central Oregon Community College, Bend, OR

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Our Urgent Opportunity: Fighting for a Sustainable, Just, and Prosperous Future

This is the text of a speech I delivered today at a rally in Portland, Oregon, highlighting today's release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's synthesis report and to urge our elected officials - our U.S. Senators - to step it up and become leaders in the fight for a brighter tomorrow:

My name is Jesse Jenkins, and I’m a member of the Cascade Climate Network, the first-ever effort by youth in the Pacific Northwest to launch a coordinated, region-wide campaign to address the climate crisis. Students across Oregon and Washington are coming together to fight for climate solutions because we clearly understand that our futures are at stake.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued today sends a clear message to all who will head it: we stand at a key turning point in human history.

The decisions we make today, both as individuals, and collectively as a society, will have profound impacts not only on our lives and the lives of our children, but indeed for all future inhabitants of this planet.

The IPCC report paints a picture of the future that we should expect if we fail to solve the climate crisis we currently face.

It is a dark and downright frightening future indeed.

The report describes a future plagued by fire, flood and famine – stuff of biblical proportions. It describes a future where one of out every three species on this planet lies on the brink of extinction, a future where billions of humans lack adequate supplies of safe drinking water.

This is truly a nightmarish scenario.

Yet many of us today have a vision of another future.

You see, the climate crisis we currently face clearly presents a tremendous and pressing challenge. But we are also at a unique moment of urgent opportunity, a chance to build a brighter tomorrow.

We envision a future were we have broken our addiction to oil and shattered our dependence on dirty and depleting fossil fuels.

We envision a future with a vibrant and prosperous economy, recharged by investments in energy efficiency, and clean, homegrown renewable energy.

We envision a future where a new generation of Americans have found pathways into the middle class through good green collar jobs in an economy that is prosperous and sustainable, both ecologically and economically.

We envision a future where parents can watch their children grow and thrive in a healthy environment, free of asthma, toxic pollution and smog.

And we envision a just future where the burdens of our energy generation and use no longer fall on the poor or disadvantaged, at home or abroad, nor on future generations.

We can make this future a reality, if we act today to begin a rapid and equitable transition to clean, renewable and local energy sources. This is our urgent opportunity, one that we have the ingenuity, hope and determination to seize.

Many of us have begun to rise to the climate challenge and begin this transition to a sustainable energy future – in our cities, our communities of faith, on or campuses and in our homes.

That is why, today, we come here to call on our elected officials to join with us to be leaders in the fight for a brighter tomorrow. Today we call on Senator Wyden and Senator Smith to help us launch the institutional and policy changes that we have already begun to make, as individuals and communities.

I am 23 years old. In the year 2030, I will be 46. What that future will look like hinges upon our ability to rise to the climate challenge – to both avoid the nightmare future described by the IPCC and to seize the opportunity to forge a brighter future: a sustainable, just, and prosperous future for all.

That’s why I’m counting on Senators Smith and Wyden. Help us Senators. Help us to end the climate crisis today and make our vision of a brighter tomorrow a reality.

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Northwest Students Unite to Form Cascade Climate Network

[This is a guest post by Jenny Bedell-Stiles, of the Cascade Climate Network]

On October 5th-7th, the cosmos aligned on Mt. Hood, Oregon for the birth of the Cascade Climate Network (makin’ us a Libra). For this weekend twenty-one student and youth activists representing ten colleges and universities across Oregon and Washington converged at a cabin owned by a certain small liberal-arts-college-that-will-not-be-named for one of the most exhilarating and exhausting weekends of my life.

There was good home-cooked vegan food for all, a sauna to enjoy, and the odd game of ping-pong to be played, but that’s not what brought us together. We came together to kick-off the Cascade Climate Network and plan a coordinated campaign for youth climate activists in the Pacific Northwest.


Previously only a “virtual” network, organized online and over the phone, the Cascade Climate Network (CCN) is the first-ever effort by youth in the Northwest to launch a region-wide campaign to address the climate crisis.

Throughout the weekend, participants drafted the Cascade Climate Declaration, a document emphasizing the need to address climate change in a clean, local, just, and ecologically sustainable manner.

The CCN will use the Declaration to build support from youth and students as well as faculty, community members, and politicians in Washington and Oregon. By building broad support for the Declaration, the Cascade Climate Network (CCN) plans to hold elected officials, university and college presidents – and ourselves! – accountable to a set of five enduring principles, which should be incorporated into any energy and global warming policy.

It took a weekend of long hours, hot consensus-based discussions and then another week of drafts, revisions, edits and more consensus – have you ever tried writing a document with 21 authors! But in the end, the Cascade Climate Declaration emerged as a testament to the strength of principles, the clarity of vision, and the commitment of Pacific Northwest youth to making a sustainable, just, and prosperous future a reality. Due to talented facilitation, a respectful communication structure (yeah for *sparkle fingers*), and ideas born of optimism and expertise, we created a document that I’ve never been prouder to stand behind. It’s a work of art and process, and it’s going to serve as an amazing organizing tool.

The CCN is now undertaking a momentous campaign that bridges the gap between campus organizing and local political involvement. All the schools in the region have been doing a great job on climate issues individually, especially on their campuses, but now with the CCN we will at last be able to bring together our collective and impressive capabilities under one awesome umbrella – and use the Declaration as a jumping off point to build off of campuses to affect the state and region as well.

We plan to get 10+ student governments and 10,000+ individual students and faculty to sign their support to the Declaration by January 31st when Focus the Nation kicks off. Recognizing that regionalism is important, but also acknowledging the powerful national movement underway, the CCN is working closely with Focus the Nation organizers and will be presenting the campaign at Power Shift this weekend. Look for us there!

Check out our online e-collaboration site to find out more and to view our baby (the Declaration) and other work.

Read more!

FERC Streamlining Permitting For Pilot Wave and Tidal Energy Projects

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced a proposal to shorten the permitting process for pilot ocean energy projects to as little as six months, according to a news release (pdf) from Finavera Renewable Energy, Inc..

Finavera Renewable Energy, Inc. is a wind and wave energy developer with pilot wave energy projects in the works in Oregon and Washington (see previous post) that will utilize their patented AquaBouy wave energy conversion device (click the image at right for an animation).

The proposal made by FERC is for projects five megawatts or less, removable or able to shut down on relatively short notice, located in waters that have no sensitive designations, and for the purpose of testing new hydro technologies or determining appropriate sites for ocean, wave and tidal energy projects.

To date, the regulatory process has been one of the primary hurdles to the commercialization of offshore wave energy. Trial projects have taken years to move through the permitting process, taking away valuable time in enacting a technology that shows great promise in reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

“By proposing to reduce barriers in the permitting process for trial projects, the Commission is providing a framework for projects that fall within its jurisdiction, and for state-led initiatives as well,” Finavera Renewables CEO Jason Bak said. “FERC is providing a significant boost for the industry.”

As part of its proposal, FERC will convene a public hearing on licensing pilot projects in Portland, Oregon on Oct. 2, 2007.

“We look forward to the hearing in October and want to extend our thanks to the FERC commissioners and staff for the tremendous commitment they’ve shown to offshore wave energy development. This decision shows strong leadership in promoting a clean, environmentally friendly renewable energy source that has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of the total energy demand in the United States.”

Finavera recently began construction of their second generation wave energy conversion device, the AquaBuOY 2.0 wave energy converter. Fabrication of the device is being carried out at Oregon Iron Works in Portland, Oregon. Finavera plans to deploy the test buoy later this year off the Oregon coast (see previous post).

Finavera recently received a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) to explore a 100 MW wave energy project off the coast of Coos County, in southern Oregon (see previous post).

The company and it's now wholly owned subsidiary, AquaEnergy, have also been working for several years towards deployment of a pilot-scale (2 MW) wave energy park in Makah Bay off the northwestern tip of Washington state's Olympic Penninsula for several years (see previous post).


This sounds like good news to me. Without any buoy or turbines in the water, it is very difficult to both assess their performance and reliability in real-word conditions and to assess and study the potential environmental impacts of wave energy development. Streamlining permitting for small, pilot-scale projects will allow developers to get experience in the water while permitting agencies can gather data and real-world experience on the environmental impacts of wave energy buoys and tidal turbines.

Without this real-world experience, permitting agencies are largely relying on conjecture as to the impacts of the first proposed commercial-scale projects, which shouldn't put anyone at ease. The last thing the emerging wave or tidal energy industries need is the equivalent of an Altamont Pass on their hands, which is possible if commercial-scale projects are permitting without first studying the impacts of a few pilot-scale projects.

All in all, this is a good sign that the wave and tidal energy industries can move forward with proving both the reliability of their technology and it's environmentally benign nature.

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Wave Energy Company to Install Buoy Off Oregon Coast

Finavera Renewables begins construction of AquaBuOY 2.0 wave energy converter; plans to deploy test buoy later this year.

Finavera Renewables Inc. has begun construction of their second generation wave energy conversion device, the AquaBuOY 2.0 wave energy converter. Fabrication of the device is being carried out at Oregon Iron Works in Portland, Oregon (see image at right) and will culminate in the planned deployment of the AquaBuOY later this year off the Oregon coast, a Finavera press release.

Alla Weinstein, General Manager of Finavera Renewables' ocean energy technology group said,

"The construction of the scaled AquaBuOY device is a tremendous accomplishment for our development team. After years of painstaking planning and development work we are now closer than ever to realizing our goals. Work crews are busy bending steel and fabricating components for the device which we plan to test in the ocean this year off the Oregon coast."

Test and measurement equipment will be installed on the AquaBuOY to monitor its operational performance. That information will form the basis for the follow-on development work which will lead to plans for the optimization of design and the path to product commercialization.

According to previous reports, Finvera plans to deploy their test buoy in partnership with Oregon State University (OSU). During the test deployment, OSU scientists and engineers to explore the technology's potential. OSU has emerged as the leading national research institute for wave energy technology.

Finavera Renewables CEO Jason Bak said,

"The start of construction is a proud moment for Finavera Renewables and illustrates our commitment to providing a new, renewable energy source for future generations. The device construction marks a key milestone in the development of AquaBuOY 2.0. Our next milestone will be the deployment and testing of the device, which we plan to carry out in waters off of Oregon. As we meet each of these milestones, we believe we are getting closer to making ocean energy commercially viable."

Finavera recently received a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) to explore a 100 MW wave energy project off the coast of Coos County, in southern Oregon (see previous post). The preliminary permit is valid for a period of three years, and allows Finavera Renewables to conduct various studies, including analyses of oceanographic conditions, commercial and recreational activities, and other impacts potentially associated with the planned project. The permit allows them to consider a project of up to 100 megawatts.

Finavera have also been moving steadily towards deployment of what may be the first operating North American wave energy park in Makah Bay off the northwestern tip of Washington state's Olympic Penninsula for several years (see previous post).

Finavera acquired wave energy technology developers AquaEnergy Group, Ltd. and their AquaBuoy technology last year. AquaEnergy Group began the original development of the Makah Bay site, for which they are seeking a full FERC siting permit (not a preliminary permit). Finavera/AquaEnergy recently completed a preliminary environmental impact assessment for the Makah Bay site which is under review (see previous post).

The Oregon coastline has emerged as the center of an emerging North American wave energy industry with several companies pursuing preliminary site permits for Oregon wave parks (see previous post).

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Washington State House Passes Global Warming Legislation

Legislation Banning New Pulverized Coal Plants and Establishing Statutory Global Warming Pollution Reduction Goals Passes State House

[From Associated Press/Forbes:]

The state House has passed a measure that would prohibit utilities from entering into long-term contracts with coal-fired power plants that produce excessive greenhouse gases.

The measure passed late Thursday night on a bipartisan 84-14 vote, but it must go back to the Senate for concurrence on language changes. Senate leaders have said they will agree to the language, which will ensure the bill will reach the governor's desk.

The measure is "putting Washington state at the forefront of cleaning up our own backyard," said Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon.

The measure finally came up for a vote after much negotiation between House and Senate leaders, as well as among environmentalists, utilities and industrial companies.

"We definitely have a deal the environmental community is comfortable with," said Clifford Traisman, a lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters and the Washington Environmental Council.

Any new coal-fired plant would have to be able to inject into the ground any emissions of greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide - in excess of 1,100 pounds of gas per megawatt hour. And utilities would be prevented from entering into contracts with plants in other states that don't meet the same cap.

There are two exceptions: two coal plants that have already begun the process, one in Kalama, and another in Wallula. If they are unable to inject their excess emissions underground, they would be allowed to offset them, by buying another high-emitting power plant and closing it down so that there is no net gain of emissions.

"This will stop construction of pulverized coal plants in Washington state," said Sen. Erik Poulsen, chairman of the Senate Water, Energy & Telecommunications Committee, who has negotiated extensively with the House and other stakeholders on the measure. "This is one of the biggest steps our state has taken on climate change."

In February, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed an executive order setting goals that would dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Washington over the next 43 years.

The measure puts her goals into state statute, setting targets to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020; to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035; and to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 - or 70 percent below what is currently predicted for 2050.

By putting the goals into statute, it ensures that "a future governor can't undo or weaken our efforts to combat climate change," Poulsen said.

Gregoire's Climate Advisory Team, made up of more than 20 people representing environmental groups, business, labor, agriculture and others, had its first meeting last month. It will meet every few months, to determine actions the state can take.

Preliminary recommendations are expected to be made to the governor later this year. Final recommendations are expected by January.

Supporters said the standards would complement measures already in place, such as an initiative approved by voters in November that requires large utility companies to increase their renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their supply by 2020.

And in 2005, lawmakers adopted a version of California's emission standards for cars and light trucks. The new standards will start taking effect in 2009, and by 2016 all new cars, SUVs and light trucks sold in Washington will have to comply with the tougher standards.

Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and other gases, essentially trap energy from the sun, which warms the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere. Many scientists believe human activity that increases those gases is contributing to global warming.

But opponents questioned whether global warming is a reality.

"I think the basis of this bill is philosophically different from what I believe in," said Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee.

"If you think there's an issue, come to Wenatchee sometime in January and we'll talk. I'd love to have a visit."

This is good news. An emissions performance standard is a great next step for Washington to rein in its global warming pollution. The compromise allowing the Kalama and Wallula IGCC projects to move forward is a bit of setback, given that the plants do not plan to sequester their emissions, but it will also provide an opportunity to demonstrate IGCC technology in the West and will still require the plants to offset their emissions, so it's not a bad compromise in my book.

Washington joins California who enacted an emissions performance standard (EPS) last year and this will add momentum to efforts to enact an EPS in Oregon, either through the legislature (a bill is expected later this session) or through Public Utility Commission regulation (a docket exploring an EPS will be opened later this year and a docket just opened yesterday on modeling of carbon risk in utility Integrated Resource Planning Processes that will take up aspects of this issue. [I am working on the carbon risk docket and will likely work on the EPS docket as well]).

Enacting Governor Gregoire's emissions reduction goals statutorily is also important. So far, there is no integrated plan for meeting those goals, but putting them in statute ensures that they will have a lot more force than an executive order.

The West Coast states are pushing forward on a variety of global warming and clean energy solutions, and I'm proud of the steps we've taken. There's always more to do, but these are important first steps, and the Western States are rolling forward now.

Congratulations to those in Washington who helped pass this important legislation.

The bill will return to the Senate for concurrence, so it's not a done deal yet, but it's prospects look good. A stronger version of the bill already passed the Senate earlier this session.

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Five Western States Team Up to Battle Global Warming

Governors of Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and New Mexico Will Work Together to Set Caps on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

[From the Oregonian:]

Oregon will join four other Western states in setting limits on greenhouse gases produced by everything from the car you drive to the power plant that supplies your electricity.

In taking the action Monday, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and New Mexico build momentum for a national strategy to control carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming. States are increasingly pressing forward on their own amid inaction by the Bush administration and Congress.

Capping emissions from fossil-fuel burning power plants could also push energy companies toward wind and other renewable energy.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski helped broker the five-state deal and signed onto it Monday with the governors of the other states.

[Image: The five western states joining the global warming compact represent about 11% of total United States emissions of global warming pollutants. The five states will set goals and create a strategy to reduce emissions within 18 months.]

The compact "sends a message to Congress and the White House that if they fail to enact policies at the national level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and do our nation's part to combat global warming, that states will do it on their own," Kulongoski said.

The governors said the West is especially vulnerable, as global warming leads to more severe droughts and wildfires; and earlier snowmelt, leaving less water in the heat of summer.

Each of the states in the western strategy was already acting on its own to address global warming. All the governors who signed the agreement are Democrats, except Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.

The strategy has potential to grow to include other states and British Columbia, which has invited West Coast states to join its efforts, said David Van't Hof, an adviser to Kulongoski. He said a primary goal of the strategy is to motivate the federal government to act, and to protect the interests of Western states if it does.

"Rather than wait for them to act, we're trying to influence where it's heading," Van't Hof said.


East Coast pact

The western effort is the second broad regional move to address global warming. Nine Eastern states have already joined to limit emissions from power plants only and create a cap-and-trade system for the plants to buy and sell credits they get for reducing emissions.

The Western states strategy is general and does not specify how the states will control greenhouse gases. But they will target all the major sources: vehicle exhaust and industrial sources as well, according to the governors and their aides.

To start out, the states will set goals for slowing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and then cutting them back. Then, within 18 months, they will establish a strategy for reducing the emissions.

One option is a cap-and-trade system that limits carbon dioxide released as electricity is generated. It would require utilities that sell electricity in Oregon, for instance, to control the resulting carbon dioxide. If they cannot control it, they might instead buy credits from those that do.

Utilities could also fund programs to offset their emissions by planting trees to soak up the gases, for example.

Emissions limits would probably also extend to vehicles in some form, since they produce about a third of carbon dioxide released nationwide. Oregon has already adopted stricter tailpipe standards that reduce vehicle pollution and emissions.

Limiting power plant emissions will probably push electricity prices up a few percent or more as power companies pay for the controls. But a draft strategy developed in Oregon would channel more money into making homes and businesses more energy efficient, so they would burn less power overall and their bills might decline.

"You're either behind the curve or you're ahead of it, and this puts Oregon ahead of it," said Jason Eisdorfer, an attorney with Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon. "Oregon is not going to solve global warming itself, but these five states together can make a significant contribution."

Depending on the approach, the Legislature would probably have to approve greenhouse gas controls. California has already instituted tough limits on carbon dioxide and is talking with the United Kingdom about combining forces in a joint strategy.

The Western states that joined the strategy Monday together emit about 11 percent of all carbon dioxide nationwide. Experts said that by itself shows that the effort must expand if it's going to have much hope of heading off global warming.

"Even the U.S., by itself, isn't going to deal with this problem," said Mark Trexler, president of Trexler Climate + Energy Solutions, a Portland consultant who helps companies prepare for global warming regulations.


Utilities' hope

Power company officials said Monday they hope the Western states' strategy paves the way for a national system to control greenhouse gases. They said they would prefer a nationwide program to a complicated web of state and regional strategies.

"It would be nice to have something consistent," said Bekki Witt, a spokeswoman for PacifiCorp, which operates and buys power from 14 coal and natural gas plants.

The more states are involved, the broader the opportunities will be to buy and sell emissions credits in a way that keeps power prices down, said Dave Robertson, government affairs director at Portland General Electric. PGE is lobbying for national legislation, he said.

Many leading utility companies are now doing the same.

By driving up the price of fossil-fuel based power plants, the strategy could shift more efforts toward the development of renewable energy from the sun, wind and waves.

"It is also a huge economic development opportunity, particularly for those states who are most aggressive in leading the charge toward a clean energy future," Kulongoski said.

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Wind Energy An Economic Wind Fall for the Pacific Northwest

[Time for a shameless plug for a fact sheet I created and just released...]

Between October 2005 and October 2006, seven new wind farms were completed in the Northwest, providing 954 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity – that is enough clean, renewable energy to power 238,500 average Northwestern homes. These new wind farms are bringing billions of dollars of capital investment and new economic activity to the region, according to a new fact sheet released this week by the Renewable Northwest Project.

The development of wind energy has grown over the last several years because the price of wind-generated electricity is affordable and stable over the long term. Wind farms create a variety of economic benefits including:

keeping jobs and money in our communities;

funding schools, fire districts and other essential services;

providing a new source of income for farmers and rural landowners; and

creating thousands of good-paying jobs.

Here’s what 954 megawatts of new wind power has brought to the Pacific Northwest:

$1.38 billion in new capital investment;

between $2 million and $3 million in annual royalty payments to rural landowners;

between $5.8 million and $6.8 million each year in local property tax revenues;

nearly 1,400 construction jobs during peak construction periods;

roughly 80 new permanent family-wage jobs for operation and maintenance.

The full fact sheet is available for download here, and a website with the same information can be found here. [Check out the pdf; it's the fully formatted version]

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Global Warming Will Drive Dramatic Changes in the Pacific Northwest's Climate

Northwest's Weather Forecast Calls for Dramatic Change in Coming Decades

[From the Oregonian:}

Fine wine, abundant electricity, wild salmon -- the things Oregonians take for granted. But keeping them will be harder than ever because we plan and build our lives in the belief that Northwest weather will always be Northwest weather.

It's not so, researchers are finding. We should expect hotter, drier heat waves, heavier rains and quicker snowmelt. The Northwest, a natural target of major storms, will feel it in ways other regions will not.

It particularly challenges public agencies and private businesses, which now must expect climate curveballs, such as the record-setting November deluge -- Portland's wettest month since 1938, Seattle's wettest in 115 years.

Warmer summers already have altered the taste of Oregon's signature pinot noir wines, and vintners are shifting their vines uphill to keep them cool. But that will not be enough. By the end of the century, the iconic grape of the state's $1 billion wine industry will grow better along Washington's Puget Sound than it does in the Willamette Valley.

[Mt Hood's once extensive glaciers and the extent of remaining summer snowpack have retreated significantly in just the past two decades, as documented by these photos from Gary Braasch (image source: WorldViewOfGlobalWarming.com)]

Volcanic debris once locked in place by Mount Hood's ice, now exposed by melting glaciers, ripped away miles of Oregon 35 during the November storm. Crews hurriedly pieced it back together at a cost of $10 million, just in time for ski season, but only a far more costly fix will fortify the road against escalating floods bearing yet more boulders.

"We have to ask, 'Do we want to spend hundreds of millions rebuilding things the way they are?' " says Gail Achterman, a member of the state highway commission and director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University. "These events are not going to stop happening, and every climate model suggests they're going to happen more often."

It's impossible to blame a single storm on global warming. But research shows the November blast was a preview of events we will see more often: heavier rain earlier in the winter; rain falling in place of snow, even in the mountains; all that extra rain rushing downstream in floods.

The trouble, scientists say, is that society does not view climate as something that substantially shifts.

"Our vulnerability to climate is based on the expectation that climate is predictable," says Nathan Mantua, a research scientist at the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group. "We in our minds are driving on cruise control thinking the road's going to stay straight. We don't realize it can change drastically."


Wild Extremes

Instruments track nearly every snowflake and raindrop falling across the West, all so federal forecasters can tell us how much water will flow to our farm fields and faucets each year. But their forecasts, vital to the region's farmers and water managers, are drifting off the mark.

"In the early '80s, the skill really began to drop off," says Tom Pagano, a water supply forecaster with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland who documented the trend.

The climate's to blame. In a way forecasters had never seen, it's veering wildly between wet and dry and cool and hot.

Weather is so complex it's impossible to identify warming as the cause. But the swings complicate life in a region already changing as it warms.

Rising temperatures are a certainty for the Northwest and already have begun to shift snow and runoff patterns vital to salmon migration and hydroelectric power. It is less clear how mounting greenhouse gases will affect rainfall and other weather patterns.

But climate projections show higher temperatures intensifying droughts and storms in the Northwest -- a kind of climatic bull's-eye.

Here's how: Evaporation off a warmer ocean injects more water into the air, which absorbs ever more water as it warms. That fuels stronger storms that carry bigger buckets of rain and snow onto land, according to studies by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

Average annual precipitation has risen across much of the region since 1920, University of Washington studies show.

The storms are expected to collide more directly with the Cascade Range, which may wring yet more moisture from the clouds, says Eric Salathe, a Climate Impacts Group research scientist.

Already, he says, winter storms arrive earlier. December once was the rainiest month in much of the Northwest, now it's November, data show. Last month, almost 50 inches fell in Oregon's Coast Range west of Salem, beating a December 1996 record that was thought to be unbreakable.

Even without wetter storms, the Northwest still will see more rain. That's because the predicted warming of one quarter to 1 degree per decade this century will turn much of the Northwest's snow to rain. Snow accumulation in the mountains at the end of each winter has declined about 25 percent since about 1920, according to Phil Mote, Washington state's official climatologist.

It'll get worse: By the 2090s, the Northwest's mountain snows will melt almost three months sooner than they do now, UW projections show.

Problem: As more rain falls, the same rivers and streams are left to drain an overwhelming amount of runoff.

Outcome: flooding.

The west side of the Cascades, where a slight rise in winter temperatures will turn a lot of snow to rain, is especially vulnerable, says Alan Hamlet, a UW research scientist.

"That's the area we should really worry about, where risks have already gone up and where they will probably continue to go up," he says.

Complicating the picture is that shrinking snows expose more ground, which absorbs heat and warms the air more, according to studies by Purdue University's Climate Change Research Center.

The unlikely flip side of this waterlogged scenario is an increasingly parched summer. That's because rainwater vanishes quickly compared with snowmelt, which will be in shorter supply. Hotter days will only accelerate the drying.

Already, 10 percent of the Columbia River's flow at Bonneville Dam has shifted from spring and summer months to fall and winter months since 1929, says Kyle Dittmer, a hydrologist and meteorologist with the Columbia Intertribal Fish Commission.

That leaves less water in hotter months, when it's needed to cool streams for salmon and to spin turbines for electricity.


The number of extremely hot days in the Northwest will double by the end of this century, the Purdue studies found. The trend has already appeared: Examination of temperature records from 1960 to 1996 by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University showed increases in extremely hot days across the Northwest.


From pinot noir to syrah

That's a challenge if you grow a certain grape for a certain kind of wine.

Oregon vineyards made their reputation with pinot noir, sensitive to heat. The weather must match the grape's preferences precisely for an award-winning wine to emerge.

"The cool climate is what we've hung our hat on here," says Harry Peterson-Nedry, founder and managing partner of Chehalem, a leading winery based in Newberg.

But growing seasons have turned warmer in only the 30 or so years since Oregon wines took off. So far that has been good, producing superior vintages grown in the ideal window of temperatures for pinot noir.

"We have moved to the middle of the window," Peterson-Nedry says. "But the problem is, we're not going to stop there. If we could stop it there, we would."

When researchers plotted places that will remain cool enough for Oregon's iconic grape by the end of this century, they were left mainly with a narrow strip along the coast and land to the north around Puget Sound.


The shift may present other opportunities, however: The Willamette Valley could become more hospitable to grapes California is known for today. Some wineries already are experimenting with warmer-weather grapes such as syrah, staple of France's hot Rhone Valley and abundant in California.

"That's with the anticipation they're going to be planting and harvesting those varieties here someday," Peterson-Nedry says.


Planning for uncertainty

On the east slope of Mount Hood, highway engineers expect more destructive floods to tear into Oregon 35. It's happened five times in the past eight years. Glaciers are melting faster, exposing even more unstable debris to future, wetter storms.

The same thing happened at Mount Rainier National Park, shut down by the record November rains. Geologists say the retreating glaciers have released so much extra sediment into river channels that streams flow dangerously high -- dooming roads tourists have driven for nearly a century.

Crews on Mount Hood installed larger culverts to shunt more water under Oregon 35 in a furious push to reopen the road, vital to the ski industry. But the Oregon Department of Transportation admits they will not withstand another deluge.

The agency lacks the money for a bigger fix, which could involve larger bridges over the unpredictable White River and cost more than $70 million. The state hopes to persuade federal authorities to foot the bill, arguing that such a big price tag will save money in the long run by avoiding repeated repairs.

The rule of thumb for the Federal Highway Administration is to balance those costs over the next 20 years, says David Cox, division administrator for Oregon. "We look at a much shorter horizon than you would think," he says.

But the implications of global warming do not end in 20 years. By then, the climate may be changing even faster and in more unexpected ways, researchers say.

Although scientists are a conservative bunch, some worry we have underestimated how sensitive the climate is. Change feeds on itself. This month, new findings showed the Arctic may lose its summer ice by 2040.

That exposes more water, which absorbs more sunlight, which warms an ocean already heating rapidly.

"Things are happening now almost faster than we can predict them," says Richard Gammon, a UW chemistry and oceanography professor. "Right now, the scientists are more alarmed than the general public."

Read more!

News From My Backyard: Propelled By Voters, Wind Power Picks Up Speed in Washington State

[From the Puget Sound Business Journal:]

When Columbia County resident Tanya Patton wants to get a library book for herself or one of the four children she home-schools, she has to visit the nearby Dayton Library during the 21 hours the library is open during the week. Even with limited hours, keeping the library going has required endless rounds of bake sales, book sales, raffles and other fundraisers from Patton and other supporters.

But the library soon will get significantly more funding, thanks to a boost in the county's property tax revenue generated by the new Hopkins Ridge wind farm [pictured above]. Patton led a campaign to form a new county library district that will share resources with the city library, which may allow the library to extend its operating hours or put its catalog online for the first time.

Across large swaths of Eastern Washington, wind farms are generating tax revenues as well as electricity, pumping additional money into county coffers. As more wind farms are built, their construction and the taxes they generate may have a profound impact on the economic landscape of rural counties.

Three new wind farms -- Hopkins Ridge in Columbia County and Wild Horse and Big Horn in Klickitat County -- were completed in Eastern Washington within the past year, bringing the state's total to six.

Those three facilities more than double the state's wind-energy production, generating enough power to serve three-quarters of the households in Seattle. They will also generate about $3.6 million a year in property taxes during their first 10 years in operation, according to Renewable Northwest Project, a Portland-based coalition of environmental and consumer groups and energy companies.

And the wind-energy trend is gaining speed, thanks in part to Initiative 937, which will require large utilities to increase the renewable power they generate. Another half-dozen wind farms are under construction, ready to break ground or in the permitting process.

Others may follow, since significantly more wind power will likely be required to meet the goals of I-937. The Democratic Congress also appears poised to extend the production tax credit that makes wind power competitive with energy from other sources.

But the industry faces significant challenges, including a lack of transmission capacity to carry power from Eastern Washington or even Montana and Idaho, the areas with the highest potential to generate power, to Western Washington, the area of highest power demand.

The industry, and individual wind-power developers, also have plenty of critics. Some residents of Eastern Washington consider wind farms visual blight. David Bowen, chair of the Kittitas County Commission, said he's gone to public meetings about proposed wind farms and heard residents say that constructing the projects would mean reducing the quality of life in Kittitas to serve the Puget Sound area's energy needs.

Audubon Washington supports wind-energy development, but the organization also wants the state to study wind-farm siting to reduce impacts on wildlife. Audubon Washington and other groups say proposed wind-farm projects need to be evaluated to ensure they won't kill large numbers of birds and bats.

For better or worse, construction of wind farms seems likely to continue for several reasons. While the Northwest's massive hydroelectric dams have provided cheap and abundant electricity for decades, much of that power is spoken for, and new electricity sources must be found to accommodate growth. Concerns over global warming and pollution make renewable power sources such as wind farms more appealing than such options as coal-fired power plants. Some utilities, such as Bellevue-based Puget Sound Energy, the owner of the new Hopkins Ridge and Wild Horse projects, are embracing wind energy. And many customers and lawmakers support renewable power for reasons such as environmental and energy-security concerns.

Voter support for renewable energy was evident with the November passage of I-937 [see previous post], which requires large electric utilities to get 15 percent of power from renewable sources -- other than existing hydroelectric dams -- by the year 2020. Wind energy will likely make up a significant chunk of that.

Although some of the 15 percent will come from solar, biomass or biogas and other sources, wind energy will be a substantial part because wind power is cheaper to produce than solar. Today, only about 1.3 percent of the state's electricity comes from wind. Some of the wind energy produced in Washington, such as electricity from the Big Horn project in Klickitat County, is sold to other states such as California.

The three new wind projects completed within the last year represent significant chunks of capital. According to Renewable Northwest Project, they represent $840 million in total project investment and capital costs, about 743 short-term construction jobs and 39 to 50 permanent jobs. In addition to the roughly $3.6 million the projects will generate in annual property taxes over the first 10 years, the turbine owners are paying landowners between $1.2 million and $1.85 million in royalties. A landowner can get between $2,000 and $5,000 per turbine per year.

Some of the economic effects are being felt even before the property tax revenue is being collected. While Hopkins Ridge was being built, workers bought goods and services in the surrounding community, said Jennie Dickinson, executive director of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce.

"The hotels were full of workers, and the state of Washington has a lodging tax that can be used for tourism promotion," Dickinson said.

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