Month: November 2008

Summary

Existing voluntary green power programs can increase renewable energy generation without forcing unnecessary costs on the entire population. Just as with organic food, customers who value green power can purchase it. Unfortunately, Senate Bill 838 mandates utilities to provide renewable power that 98% of Oregonians currently choose not to purchase. (more…)

Summary

With Oregon facing a $1-billion-and-counting budget deficit, the temptation exists for legislators to close the budget gap with tax increases. Before any conversation about raising taxes occurs, however, state officials should first agree to a set of guiding principles of taxation. (more…)

Summary

Oregon state revenues are now projected to be $1 billion short of paying for existing services in the next biennial budget, and the economic downturn is putting pressure on all levels of government. The State Legislature will be faced with the challenge of satisfying unlimited demands with limited resources. Smart Spending, rather than new taxes, will be one step on the path out of our current crisis. (more…)

In my wildest dreams I never thought I would be writing about the City of Portland designing and patenting a solar powered public toilet, not to mention actually trying to market it.

You may remember that Seattle bought several one-million-dollar public toilets. When they became a haven for drugs and prostitution, Seattle sold them for about $12,000 each, abandoning the project.

Portland thinks it has (more…)

Many policymakers in Oregon have concluded that global warming is a crisis, that human use of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, and that state policies must be enacted to stabilize the global climate. Because of this, policy initiatives to regulate greenhouse gas emissions are fast becoming a dominant feature of statewide public policy. Oregon has adopted one of the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals in the world. (more…)

Did you know that in the last ten years, over 600 Oregon children have received a “hand up” in their education through a privately funded scholarship program called the Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland? The program’s mission is to maximize educational opportunity for students from Oregon families whose income is low to moderate.

The Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland has a ten-year history of demonstrating (more…)

Summary

When Cascade Policy Institute compared the Social Security Master Death List to the state’s voter registration rolls, we found over 1,100 active voters whom the government has reported to be deceased. Oregon’s new Secretary of State should take a hard look at the methods being used to keep voter registrations current and accurate. (more…)

Summary

Wind power is touted as a “green” solution to Oregon?s increasing energy demand. However, as a power source, wind is inconsistent and intermittent, requiring inefficient and costly backup sources. In addition, various negative environmental externalities make wind power far from “environmentally friendly.” (more…)

Summary

Cascade Policy Institute submitted an innovative proposal to TriMet to cancel TriMet’s lowest performing bus routes and to use some of the savings to capitalize a loan fund to help finance car ownership for transit-dependent riders displaced by the bus line cancellations. (more…)

On October 27, 2008, Governor Ted Kulongoski announced his Climate Change Agenda to aggressively mitigate the impacts of global warming and put Oregon on track to achieve his goals of reducing greenhouse gas levels. These goals will be hard to reach without having an energy source that can meet upcoming energy demand and produce emission-free electricity. Nuclear could be that energy source.

Energy consumption in Oregon has (more…)

Summary

Advocates of plug-in vehicles profess that they will reduce air pollution, dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases. But while plug-ins may be good for the environment, the subsidies and tax credits attempting to jumpstart the adoption of the electric car are misguided, unnecessary, and even unjust. (more…)

Summary

The driver’s license was originally created to ensure public safety by setting driving standards. But when lawmakers treat the license as a “good citizen” trophy and suspend it for nondriving-related infractions, the consequences for low-income workers’ ability to maintain employment are serious. (more…)

Today we are all aware of the candidate who won our highest office, the next President of the United States. But as I am writing this the week before, it is still a mystery to me.

Whoever is the winner of this race, the policies and regulations governing the State of Oregon remain the primary concern at Cascade Policy Institute. As a non-partisan public policy research organization, we deal with policy, not politics. We focus on the policies that affect our citizens’ economic stability and individual freedoms from a free-market viewpoint.

This is not a stance that throws us into (more…)