InvestigateWest: Washington state plan would slash emissions
Peter Fairley
InvestigateWest
After more than a decade of the supposedly eco-friendly Pacific Northwest and British Columbia falling short on pledges to fight climate change, a new blueprint emerged last month for how to eliminate all but a sliver of fossil-fuel emissions.
The 428-page plan by Washington state outlines how to make a wholesale shift to renewable energy and meet some of the most ambitious climate-protection goals on the planet. It calls for building a regional network of solar and wind energy stations and transmission lines allowing sharing of power across the western U.S. and Canada.
Washington state offers a new blueprint for how Cascadia can kick the fossil-fuel habit.
Peter Fairley is an award-winning journalist based in Victoria and San Francisco, whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, NewScientist, Hakai Magazine, Technology Review, the Atlantic, Nature and elsewhere. SHARES Climate activist Eileen Quigley is feeling hope after seeing her state of Washington set a bold new path toward renewable energy. She worked with modellers to inform the plan.
Photo by Dan DeLong via InvestigateWest. [Editor’s note: This is part of a year-long occasional series of articles produced by InvestigateWest in partnership with The Tyee and other news organizations on shifting the Cascadia region to a zero-carbon economy.]
InvestigateWest: Washington state plan would slash emissions
By PETER FAIRLEYJanuary 25, 2021 GMT
After more than a decade of the supposedly eco-friendly Pacific Northwest and British Columbia falling short on pledges to fight climate change, a new blueprint emerged this month for how to eliminate all but a sliver of fossil-fuel emissions.
The 428-page plan by Washington state outlines how to make a wholesale shift to renewable energy and meet some of the most ambitious climate-protection goals on the planet. It calls for building a regional network of solar and wind energy stations and transmission lines allowing sharing of power across the western U.S. and Canada.
A renewed plan for climate protection emerges in Washington state
Redoubled climate goals and a fresh blueprint revive hopes to cut emissions. But ongoing fossil fuel development in B.C. could undercut progress in Cascadia.
by
InvestigateWest / January 25, 2021
Whether and how to expand the Interstate 5 bridge between Oregon and Washington is a prime example of decisions facing the governments of Cascadia to address climate change. Adding more lanes to the bridge will accelerate urban sprawl north into Washington from Oregon, baking in decades of single-user car trips that further heat the atmosphere, critics say. Yet pressure on the Washington and Oregon legislatures to expand the bridge is intense. (Troy Wayrynen/The Columbian)