Cascadia today: Officials hid cost of I-5 bridge replacement + BC glaciers melting + a literary reading for Palestine
Good afternoon. Cascadia responded to ICE agent Jonathan Ross killing 37-year-old single mom Renee Good in Minneapolis by holding protests in Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma. I wrote about the Seattle rally here. Seattle Indivisible announced there will be a memorial vigil this evening, 6:30 pm, Thursday January 8, at Pier 58 in Seattle.
Andrew Engelson
Officials hid cost of I-5 bridge replacement: $13.6 billion
Willamette Week has a blockbuster investigative story: despite saying they don't yet have an accurate estimate of the cost to replace the I-5 bridge replacement over the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, officials at the Oregon Department of Transportation received a detailed cost estimate report in August that show the cost surging from $6 billion to $13.6 billion. This, as Oregon governor Tina Kotek is now urging a do-over on her transportation plan, passed last year in a special session. For more on opposition to the massive I-5 boondoggle, visit No More Freeways.
WA ecology officials lied about impact of carbon pricing
In other news of local officials being deceptive, KUOW reports that the Washington state Department of Ecology greatly exaggerated the climate impact of the state's carbon pricing program, which auctions off the rights for polluters to keep polluting. The program has generated $5 billion in revenue. Officials claimed in a report the credits took 8.6 million metric tons of pollution from the air, but then corrected that figure to just 300,000 metric tons (less than one half a percent of statewide emissions).
Governor Bob Ferguson has proposed raiding $569 million from that carbon fund to balance his budget rather than funding clean energy. If you live in Washington, call your legislators and tell them that's not acceptable.
BC glaciers had record melting in 2025
In other climate-related news from Cascadia, CBC reports that British Columbia-based scientists have found that glaciers in western Canada lost 30 gigatons of ice, the second-worst year of melting on record. Thanks, climate change – and also Mark Carney's Canadian government, which is proposing a new oil pipeline between Alberta and northern BC.
Space X plant near Seattle poisoned workers
Investigate West uncovers evidence that workers for Elon Musk's Space X lab in Redmond, Washington were likely exposed to toxic chemicals. The company hid this from state inspectors and fired workers who raised concerns. As always, boycott Tesla and Starlink.
Pressuring Portland's Literary Arts to stand up for Palestine
The Portland Mercury reports on Portland authors' efforts to pressure the nonprofit Literary Arts (which runs the annual Portland Book Festival) to drop sponsors Wells Fargo and Bank of America, who have helped fund weapons and Israel's war against Gaza. The coalition, Literary Portland for Palestine, is hosting a reading by four poets, including Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, at 7 pm Friday, January 9 at Mother Foucault's Bookshop at 715 SE Grand in Portland.
Thanks for reading. --Andrew
