Locus Focus

Today we honor Oregon Environment Icon Bob Sallinger, who died on October 30.

For over 30 years Bob has been a regional fixture advocating and fighting to

protect our rivers, wildlife, forests and communities from environmental and

social degradation and injustice. One o...

For seven years Portland community members have been trying to shut down

Zenith Energy, a Houston-based oil company that sneaked into Portland in

2017. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality just opened the public

comment period for Zenith’s draft Air Contaminant...

Northwest Natural, Oregon's largest fracked gas utility, has been doing its

best for several years to delay the region's move to full electrification.

But in the past few months the company is getting its comeuppance in the

form of an expanded lawsuit from Multnomah Coun...

In the next week or so we will find out whether or not the United States will

remain a democracy. The suspense and stress cannot be more intense. But on

the day before Election Day we will try to cut through the anxiety and focus

on how we must protect and strengthen our...

The UK-based bioenergy company Drax is coming to the West Coast. Drax, which

faces accusations of misleading regulators by denying that they are sourcing

wood pellets from old-growth forests, is now partnering with rural county

supervisors in California to build massive ...

On September 27, Kentucky State Representative Justin Pearson came to

Portland to talk about his community’s triumph against the Byhalia

Connection Pipeline in Southwest Memphis. He was joined by local

environmental justice advocates who shared past victories in our region ...

The Houston-based company, NEXT Renewables LLC Oregon is proposing to

construct a major new refinery at Port Westward, near Clatskanie, on the

Columbia. This project would immediately become one of Oregon’s top

greenhouse gas polluters. The refinery would be one of the larg...

Hurricane Helene dramatically illustrates how climate chaos is impacting us

right now. Yet while there are real solutions that will enable us to stop

emitting greenhouse gases, the fossil fuel industry continues to promote a

menagerie of false solutions that do not actually...

For decades powerful corporate industries have set the stage for much of the

city’s development along the  lower Willamette and Columbia Rivers through

a little known process known as the Economic Opportunity Analysis, or

EOA. Currently the Bureau of Planning and Sustainabi...

The Wall Street investors driving the climate crisis and big timber

corporations clearcutting PNW forests are coming to Portland for the annual

“Who Will Own the Forest?” conference---now called

“Canopy”---September 24-26. These big polluters hope to stall real

climate act...