Locus Focus

Several years ago NEXT Energy (now NXT) proposed to build a renewable diesel

refinery and rail yard at Port Westward, a spectacular point of land

protruding into the Columbia River Estuary near the town of Clatskanie. The

proposal was enthusiastically supported by the Port ...

This program originally aired on January 15, 2024

Lawmakers and advocates have called upon Oregon Attorney General Ellen

Rosenblum to launch an investigation into NW Natural for misleading consumers

about the health impacts from gas. In their letter to Rosenblum they det...

The environment and the climate are having a rough ride at Portland City

Council and in the backrooms of the Oregon State Capitol. Less than a day

before a hearing on a housing regulatory reform package, Portland City

Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, working behind the scenes wi...

This November Portland voters have the historic opportunity to elect a new

city council that actually reflects the diversity of its constituents. In

2022 voters overwhelmingly supported a city charter change that transforms

the structure of the city government, dividing the...

The last 10 miles of the Willamette River have been designated as a Superfund

Site, a federal designation for the worst contaminated areas in the United

States. The North Reach of the Willamette is one of the most complex

Superfund Sites in the country. This highly contamin...

Lawmakers and advocates have called upon Oregon Attorney General Ellen

Rosenblum to launch an investigation into NW Natural for misleading consumers

about the health impacts from gas. In their letter to Rosenblum they detail

how NW Natural has taken a leaf from the tobacco ...

Before Hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7 we were mainly aware

of two existential threats: the impending death of democracy and climate

catastrophe. But that attack and Israel’s unrelenting response has split

our attention and overwhelmed us with a barrage of is...

Woody biomass has become the fossil-fuel industry’s renewable, green savior

but this source of energy is fraught with problems. British energy giant

Drax has proposed building a wood biomass processing and export facility in

Longview, Washington, that would use one million ...

This program aired originally on September 4, 2023

Without the Salmon there would be no Pacific Northwest as we know it. Yet

since 1991, most of the salmon runs in the Northwest have been listed as

threatened or endangered. In 2005, I produced a documentary

called Salmo...

This past September the World Forestry Center sponsored an annual conference

called “Who Will Own the Forests,” attended by the most notorious

representatives in the Wall Street timber industry. There they schemed on

perfecting the financialization of forest ecosystems, exp...