Daily Score Blog

Continuing a three decade old argument over drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the US Senate appears likely to make another important vote on the subject in the next 48 hours, according to US Senator John Kerry.

This issue is of interest to Cascadians because Alaska is the main source of Oregon and Washington's oil. (British Columbia runs on Albertan oil; Idaho and western Montana burn fuel from Billings, Montana.) Drilling proponents argue on the grounds of national security, but Alaskan oil is actually far less secure than you might assume. In fact, although it is drilled from American soil, it arrives in the continental United States the same way as oil from the Middle East: by ship.

I missed this Oregonian article when it first ran, but it gives a good rundown on the chaos that the passage of Measure 37--the voter-approved initiative in Oregon that forces the government either to pay landowners or issue waivers when land-use rules reduce property values--is creating, not just for state and county officials, but even for the landowners who were the measure's intended beneficiaries.

What's particularly interesting, at least to me, is that the measure has sown strife in many communities, pitting neighbor against neighbor:

Neighbors in some parts of the state have railed against the potential for blocked views, an eroded farming economy and increased traffic. The issue escalated in Yamhill County, where neighbors flooded a meeting five weeks ago to dole out waivers.

All this should come as no surprise:  while many Measure 37 claims are fairly innocuous, there are also quite a few that are a very big deal indeed.

For every dozen or so low-profile claims, another attracts public attention. A pair of brothers in Marion County want to cover their farm with a casino, hotel, golf course, gas station and subdivision. New homes could trace the shore of Eastern Oregon's Wallowa Lake, where Old Chief Joseph is buried. Nearly two dozen Central Oregon property owners want to capitalize on a building boom by putting in subdivisions.

Time will tell whether these kinds of conflicts will eventually settle down.  But in the meantime, voters who were looking for a kinder, gentler land-use system may have given themselves more of a headache than they'd bargained for.

US gasoline prices are about to set a new record, at least in nominal terms. Prices are highest on the West Coast, where a gallon of gasoline currently sells for $2.29, on average.

As we've pointed out before, the Northwest doesn't produce any of its own gasoline. We refine it, sell it, and tax it, but over half of the cost of gasoline is the crude oil itself (click on the image at left to see a detailed breakdown). So most of the money we spend at the pump hightails it out of town. Want to see just how fast fossil fuel expenditures leave the region? Check out our web-based counter.