🥇 A full year of regional, cross-border reporting on decarbonization’s hows, whys and why-nots.

** MAY 2022 UPDATE The Society of Professional Journalists’ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest has recognized our series with two first-place prizes — one for Writing: Environment & Natural Disaster Reporting and another for Collaboration

In June 2020 InvestigateWest cofounder Robert McClure commissioned me to map out a regional reporting project about ‘decarbonizing’ the Pacific Northwest. That turned into Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia, which we launched in January 2021. Throughout last year the series explored how Washington, Oregon and British Columbia (which form the Cascadia bioregion) could get off fossil fuels, and why the region must transition to cleaner energy post-haste.

We delivered 33 stories, videos, and radio and TV spots on the region’s climate inequities, activism and politics, and its policy and technology options. I served as primary writer, edited many pieces, and managed InvestigateWest’s collaborations with regional and national journalism partners that expanded the series’ production and reach.

Thinking regionally made sense because Cascadia’s jurisdictions are united by heavy reliance on hydropower, a transition from resource extraction to knowledge-based economies, impactful and uneasy relations between Indigenous peoples’ and others, and fast-growing populations and economies. And in 2021 the brutal reality of unprecedented climate extremes — deadly fires, heat waves, floods — drove home the shared threat they face.

As we investigated in the January 2021 opener, Washington, Oregon and BC also have the dubious distinction of ever-growing dependence on fossil fuels and thus carbon emissions. This despite of a decade of climate promises and perceived ‘leadership’, and significant reductions overall in the US and Canada. “The overarching problem is a shortage of political will,” wrote the LA Times about that piece, calling it an “excellent deep dive.”

Throughout, our reporting blended pointed looks at such inconvenient truths and stubborn barriers, with profiles of actors edging forward the various means available to replace fossil fuels.

Diverse voices and exploration of equity issues suffused the series, which also provided training to two emerging journalists of color. And the series regular spanned the US-Canada border, which more often serves as a barrier than a bridge (and was physically closed to travel for most of the year).

Collaborators included regional partners Crosscut (Seattle), The Tyee (Vancouver), Jefferson Public Radio (Ashland, OR) and the South Seattle Emerald, as well as U.S. national partners Grist and the Associated Press. Partners produced about a third of the content and pushed the series out to many more readers via online audiences orders of magnitude larger than InvestigateWest’s.

Notably, The Tyee documented that readers spent over 8 minutes on series pages, which Tyee founding editor David Beers characterized as “an eternity online.”

Shortened and purpose-edited stories for the AP wire, meanwhile, expanded the series’ appeal to audiences beyond the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada. The Houston Chronicle, the Raleigh Observer, the San Francisco Chronicle and other major metro papers consistently tapped the series, along with specialty pubs like Indian Country Today and regional outlets such as Oregon Public Broadcasting. AP cuts also generated regional print runs, including front page pickup in such outlets as The Seattle Times, The (Olympia, WA) Olympian and The News Tribune in Tacoma (image at right).

Additional collaborations expanded our reach to different media. Such as a TV news segment by ABC7 Bay Area based on our profile of a nascent effort in rural Washington to make biochar, a form of charcoal, thus generating cash for forest restoration and simultaneously trapping carbon underground. And student-produced nonfiction radio plays based on the series, broadcast live by San Francisco-based StoryWorks.

Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia contributed to the region’s unprecedented climate policy developments last year. For example, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality cited my report on mapping disparities in climate vulnerability in its rulemaking implementing Governor Kate Brown’s signature climate policy, the Climate Protection Program, intended to force down greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities.

Feedback from regional activists and politicians suggest that the series’ relentless focus on policy shortcomings and the readiness of climate solutions contributed to similarly momentous developments in Washington — which passed long-stalled bills that put a price on carbon pollution and to reduce the carbon intensity of diesel and gasoline supplies — and a climate policy overhaul in British Columbia projected to nearly double emissions reductions through 2030.

Recognition of the series went well beyond the LA Times’ Boiling Point newsletter. The Fund for Investigative Journalism, a series funder, celebrated it three times in its “Grantee’s Stories” news posts, citing stories covering the power grid, jobs and forests. The Local Media Association cited the series in a report on solutions reporting. LMA noted research showing that stories with a solutions-angle garner larger audiences, and that people engage more deeply if they “think something can be done about a problem.” It presented my August piece on the West’s shared power grid as a poster child, stating that: “InvestigateWest’s in-depth look at the grid and solutions for becoming more resilient in the face of climate change clearly resonated with readers.”

A companion piece on Cascadia’s grid challenges broke ground on equity coverage, reporting on the displacement of Indigenous peoples by the dozens of wind farms proliferating along the Columbia River Gorge that divides Washington and Oregon. Even longtime energy policy veterans were unaware that wind power had, in effect, fenced the region’s Native Americans out of the lands they’ve foraged for traditional foods and medicines for centuries (or longer).

Fossil fuel lobbies also took note. For example, the gas sector’s Affordable Energy Coalition campaign tweeted our report on civic activism to push natural gas out of buildings. And a tweet by the Propane Council sought to use the series’ final piece (and INVW and the series’ credibility) to declare propane a “low-carbon” fuel.

We set the record straight, calling out Big Propane’s misleading citation as a classic example of fossil fuel industry disinformation.

Click here and scroll down to explore InvestigateWest’s runs of the Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia stories contributed by myself, InvestigateWest intern Iris Crawford and fellow Braela Kwan, The Tyee’s Michelle Gamage and Amanda Follett Hosgood, Shannon Osaka and Clayton Aldern at Grist, Crosscut’s Mai Hoang, Ysabelle Kempe (now at the Bellingham Herald), Erik Newmann at JPR, and freelance journalists Andy Engelson, Lizz Giordano, Mandy Godwin, Levi Pulkinnen (now with the Seattle Times) and Jack Russillo.

Here are mine:

by pfairley

Will Upping The Ante Win Climate Activists Support or Scorn?

Extinction Rebellion activist Howard Breen, on Day 27 of his hunger strike, under house arrest at his back-lot cabin in Nanaimo, B.C. Photo credit: Peter Fairley

Climate protest via self-sacrifice is on the rise globally. Extinction Rebellion activists in the UK, for instance, have started to deliberately seek imprisonment. Hunger strikes are seemingly everywhere. And then there’s the ultimate sacrifice, self-immolation. 50-year old Colorado activist Wynn Bruce burned alive on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day last month.

I reported on this abnormal new normal from the inside for The Tyee, visiting veteran British Columbia activist and hunger striker Howard Breen.

What drives Breen and his comrades-in-nonviolence? Can their highly-polarizing sacrificial protests accelerate climate protection, or will they be written-off as misguided and/or mentally ill? Read the story @TheTyee.

by pfairley

Ukraine’s #EnergyFront

Energy is central to the geopolitics of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Putin thought Europe would let him seize Ukraine because the continent depends so heavily on Russian gas, petroleum and coal. The US is helping turn back Russian aggression not just by pumping weapons into Ukraine, but also by bolstering Europe’s energy supplies and thus facilitating European solidarity.

A substation in Ukraine shelled by Russia. Photo credit: State Emergency Service Of Ukraine.

But there’s also an #EnergyFront within Ukraine, which I’ve been covering for @IEEESpectrum. One flashpoint has been Ukraine’s power grid which was, until the war began, tied to the giant UPS/IPS synchronous AC power zone controlled from Moscow. My report, How Russia Sent Ukraine Racing Into the “Energy Eurozone”, chronicles bold moves in the war’s first weeks that isolated Ukraine’s power system and then plugged it into Europe’s.

Ukraine’s power grid operator made the first move hours before Russian tanks and missiles crossed borders in February. The transmission operators’ European counterparts made the next “heroic” move a few weeks later, stabilizing Ukraine’s power supply even as its attackers destroyed lines, substations and power generators.

Another flashpoint is the battle for control of Ukraine’s nuclear power sector, including the four operating plants that supply over half of the country’s electricity. When Russia invaded, Ukraine remained heavily dependent on Russian suppliers of nuclear fuel, waste handling, and parts. Patriots feared sabotage of nuclear power plants and and their defences, either to facilitate the plants’ seizure by Russian forces or to cause a nuclear incident.

Their fears prove justified when the Russian army attacked and captured Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant—Europe’s largest.

My report, Ukraine Scrubbing Nuclear Agencies of Russian Influence, revealed an internal struggle for control of Ukrainian national nuclear power generating company Energoatom whereby several top executives fled the country and a vice president was detained by state security police.

by pfairley

And, for the win, it’s… Who Killed The Supergrid !

In August 2020 over 18 months of reporting paid off with my investigative feature Who Killed The Supergrid – an InvestigateWest production co-published with The Atlantic. Today that work and its immediate impact was recognized with an investigative journalism award from Covering Climate Now. That consortium, created in 2019 by the Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, The Guardian and WNYC, has since grown into a who’s who of international media, and I’m honoured that they picked my work from more than 600 nominated entries.

In the words of the judges:

This meticulous story revealed the Trump administration’s deliberate effort to bury a federally funded study that provided evidence that a connected super grid would accelerate the growth of wind and solar energy. The story made the abstraction of the nation’s power grid interesting, and Fairley’s explosive disclosures also led to regulatory change.

Individual panelists added commentary during the video awards celebration (see below). Giles Trendle, Managing editor for Al Jazeera English, called my story, “another great example of holding power to account.”

I have thanked many of the talented people who contributed to this success in the Twitter thread at right. But a few bear repeating:

My friend, longtime SEJ colleague, and editor Robert McClure, co-founder of InvestigateWest, jumped at the opportunity to take on my project and helped me take it all the way. I’m grateful that ‘just good enough’ isn’t in Robert’s DNA.

The team at The Atlantic, including Ellen Cushing and Faith Hill, further improved the prose and managed a very thorough fact check.

And the Fund for Investigative Journalism provided financial support plus access to a valuable pre-publication legal review by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

FYI the awards video hosted by ‘America’s weatherman’ Al Roker and NBC Live NOW anchor Savannah Sellers showcases all of the 2021 award program’s winning entries from around the world. It’s inspiring and informative. Definitely worth watching, and sharing…

by pfairley

Getting ‘Cascadia’ off fossil fuels: A cross-border reporting project for 2021

I live in Cascadia, a land of hydropower, mossy forests and clearcuts, increasing human diversity and megafires. We think, on the whole, that we’re green, and our leaders think we’re leading the fight against climate change. Alas despite big promises over a decade ago and countless initiatives since, fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions keep growing across Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.

"Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia" and "Investigate West" in gold and dark gray font next to a digital illustration of a mountain against a yellow half-circle.

This year I’m drilling down on what it will take to turn Cascadia’s climate picture around — for my region to get real about moving beyond carbon energy. In January my reporting for Seattle-based nonprofit journalism studio InvestigateWest launched a year-long collaborative project exploring Cascadia’s capacity to slash carbon emissions over the coming decades.

Getting to Zero: Decarbonizing Cascadia profiles the people, policies and firms that can transform the region’s economy and restore its scorched and beetle-infested forests. It’s an ambitious project, and nearly unique in its cross-border frame.

To deliver on the ambition we recruited a team of nonprofit journalism superstars, including Grist.org, The Tyee, Seattle-based Crosscut, and Jefferson Public Radio — the NPR affiliate for southwest Oregon and northwest California. The Associated Press wire carries our series to news outlets across the United States. And we’re already a LONGFORM selection.

Pat Bradley / springshoeanimation.com. Full credits at 1:30
by pfairley

‘It just goes into a black hole’

In August my exposé in The Atlantic detailed the Trump administration takedown of a clean energy study. Since then I have been working hard to document how deep the political interference goes at the U.S. Department of Energy. The answer is DEEP.

My story for InvestigateWest and Grist shows that political interference is a pervasive practice targeting research funded by the DOE’s efficiency and renewables office. In all, Trump appointees have blocked reports for more than 40 clean energy studies, according to emails and documents I obtained as well as interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees at the Department of Energy and its national labs.

“There are dozens of reports languishing right now that can’t be published,” said Stephen Capanna, a former director of strategic analysis for the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy — the office that Simmons runs — who quit in frustration in April 2019. “This is a systemic issue.”

Bottling up and slow-walking studies violates the Energy Department’s scientific integrity policy and is already harming efforts to fight climate change, according to energy and policy experts, because Energy Department reports drive investment decisions. Entrepreneurs worry that the agency’s practices under the current White House will ultimately hurt growth prospects for U.S.-developed technology.

The meddling is also fuelling an energy science brain drain. Not only because research is held up. But because scientists have no idea why their work is disappearing. They, and the research they’re waiting to publish, are simply left dangling. “There’s no feedback,” said one national lab researcher. “It just goes into a black hole.” 

Illustration: Amelia Bates / Grist

Read the story at Grist or InvestigateWest

by pfairley

A sad tale for federal science. A potent lift for this science journalist.

Passed w/ the Clean Energy & Jobs Act

Response to my August 20, 2020 investigation for The Atlantic and InvestigateWest has been moving, humbling and, at times, overwhelming. We took a deep dive into censorship of clean energy research by Trump officials at the U.S. Department of Energy, and it struck a chord. Especially our inside story of the impact on federal researchers doing their best science. The suppression of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s grid modernization study is a dark tale, but the positive feedback provides a much-needed boost to this journalist during these dark times for the press.

The ripples are still moving, but already include …

Plus a tweetstorm on Twitter. Tweeters include a U.S. Senator, a Cousteau, and globally-recognized researchers such as climate scientist Ken Caldeira, former World Bank energy analysis chief Morgan Bazilian, and US-Canadian applied physics superstar David Keith.

Twitter also delivered several limericks by #energytwitter experts, and a #FreeSeams movement led by Joseph Majkut, the Princeton-trained climatologist who directs climate policy for the Niskanen Center, a Washington, DC-based thinktank.

The best feedback of all are the messages from federal scientists at the national labs and at DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, who have suffered in silence under the Trump administration’s anti-science regime and finally feel heard.

Oh, and word from insiders that the Department of Energy is moving to release the Seams study.

Stayed tuned: Followup investigation in preparation. And #FreeSeams!

by pfairley