Locus Focus

For over sixteen years the threat of a massive LNG export terminal at Coos

Bay, fed by a 230 mile 36” wide gas pipeline snaking across five counties,

loomed over Southern Oregon. Then on January 19, this project received its

quite likely death blow, when the Federal Energy ...

In a remarkable turn of events last week, the Washington State Department of

Ecology denied a crucial permit for the world's largest methanol refinery,

proposed for Kalama, Washington. People in Kalama have been fighting this

methanol refinery for seven years, joined by act...

We started out this new year hoping it would offer some respite after the

ravages of 2020.  Instead we witnessed a terrorist attack at the Capitol and

a second impeachment of Donald Trump. But the day before Trump slunk away to

Florida and Joe Biden became the 46th presiden...

While much of the public, and many politicians, believe that high-severity

fires destroy wildlife habitat and promote insect infestations, the science

proves otherwise. But this false assumption that fire and insects are

destructive to wildlife is providing the underlying b...

It’s hard to decide what was the most unbelievable event of 2020, in a year

that never relented with terrifying surprises. There have been many moments

when it felt that things will never be as they were, especially as the

impacts of climate chaos grow more and more dramati...

THIS PROGRAM AIRED ORIGINALLY ON OCTOBER 19, 2020

This past October I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Northwest

environmental writer, poet, novelist and butterfly expert, Robert Michael

Pyle, about  his new book Nature Matrix. We had a free-wheeling

conversat...

So the electoral college has met and elected Joe Biden president, and Mitch

McConnell has finally congratulated Biden. After a close brush with the end

of democracy in America, is all well now? Or does this close call actually

amplify all the weaknesses and undemocratic fea...

A vast array of tank farms, housing an even vaster array of toxic chemicals

and fossil fuels, lines the Willamette River as you head north along highway

30 in Northwest Portland. Known as Oregon’s Critical Energy Infrastructure

Hub, these tanks provide most of the fuel stor...

This past October the Columbia River Gorge Commission adopted much needed

revisions to the Management Plan for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic

Area, which had not been updated since 1991. These plan revisions address for

the first time critical issues like climate ...