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ANALYSIS

CSE houses a top-notch team of researchers with a diverse background in a number of disciplines at the forefront of thinking about the new economy. We specialize in benefit-cost analysis, net public benefits analysis, non-market valuation, regional modeling, ecological footprints and climate impacts analysis. We produce in-depth reports, short form analyses and peer reviewed publications for clients and partners. Recent areas of focus include the climate impacts of industrial forest practices, the Genuine Progress Indicator, and the external costs of fossil fuel infrastructure.

SOLUTIONS

CSE uses its economic, scientific and legal expertise to develop innovative policy solutions to some of humanity’s most tenacious challenges. We develop model legislative solutions at the federal, state, and local levels as well as new or amended regulatory approaches. Our policy innovations have been key in leveraging new protections for at risk forests, farmland, wetlands, and wildlife habitat, halting new fossil fuel infrastructure, changing priorities for public finance and helping alleviate the growing inequality divide through affordable housing and living wages.

ADVOCACY

CSE is dedicated to promoting best practices for federal, state and local agencies who are legally bound to justify the economic basis for their decisions and demonstrate that they serve the public interest. To this end, we monitor, comment and if necessary, challenge in court decisions that affect the well-being of the nation’s economy and its citizens. We also provide expert testimony to help leaders in Congress, state legislatures as well as county and city councils and commissions advance sustainability initiatives important for their constituents.

FEATURED WORK

By John Talberth 04 Dec, 2023
Community gardens and climate resilient cropping provide alternatives to polluting mud drags.
By Forest Carbon Coalition 05 Sep, 2023
Coalition calls for deep reforms of practices, ownership, subsidies and incentives
By John Talberth 18 Jul, 2023
New Report Shows “Climate Threat” of Proposed Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan
By Christopher Still and John Talberth 30 Mar, 2022
It’s no secret that landscapes dominated by clearcuts, logging roads, and timber plantations pose significant public health and safety risks by amplifying the effects of heat waves, drought, water shortages, wildfires, landslides, floods, invasive species and other stressors already on the rise due to climate change. The pool of research documenting these effects is robust, and growing. Recently, CSE teamed up with Dr. Christopher Still at Oregon State University to add to that body of research by comparing and contrasting the effects of the unprecedented 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave on undisturbed, old growth forest vs. heavily clearcut and degraded forestlands near Cougar Reservoir in Oregon’s central Cascades and in southwest Washington. The technical report is now available and can be viewed and downloaded here . Key findings include: The loss and degradation of primary forests is driving climate change and amplifying the severity of heat waves and droughts. The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heat dome of 2021 provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the climatic responses of undisturbed primary forests to deforested and degraded lands. Using NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data, land surface temperatures of undisturbed vs. deforested and degraded forestlands in western Oregon were compared before, during and after the heat dome event. In two contrasting sites in southwest Washington, tower data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) was used to compare canopy temperatures, ecosystem fluxes of water, net ecosystem carbon exchange, and ecosystem photosynthesis. At the western Oregon region of interest, the mean, maximum, and minimum land surface temperature was always higher on the deforested and degraded lands. During the heat dome event, the undisturbed forest was 5.5 ºC cooler ( 94.8 ºF vs. 104.7 ºF). At the NEON sites in Washington and relative to the undisturbed old growth forest, the degraded (plantation) site was hotter (~4.5 ºC), lost more water, was less efficient at photosynthesis, and experienced a more dramatic impact to carbon cycling, flipping from a sink to a source during the heat dome event. The results suggest that as heat and drought intensify with climate change, maintaining the extent of undisturbed forest and reducing the extent of deforested and degraded lands may be important for mitigating the effects of heat waves, conserving water supplies, and reducing wildfire risk. This technical report will be split into two papers for peer reviewed journals and likely published in the fall. In the meantime, CSE will continue to work with legislators and county commissions in Oregon and Washington to advocate for changes in forest practices and comprehensive land use plans to better protect nearby communities from these growing public health and safety threats. Stay tuned for updates on this work. Read: Still, C., Talberth, J. 2022. Deforestation, Forest Degradation, Heat Waves and Drought. Evidence from the Pacific Northwest Heat Dome of 2021.
By Chad Hanson, Ph.D. and John Talberth, Ph.D. 28 Sep, 2021
As Congress accelerates work to pass two massive new spending bills – the budget Reconciliation ($3.5 trillion) and Infrastructure ($1.2 trillion) packages – lawmakers need to do the math to ensure that money is not thrown to programs that increase greenhouse gas pollution and reduce our ability to overcome the climate crisis. After all, one of the key selling points for each is their claimed climate benefits. Proponents of the Reconciliation package, for example, assert that some clean energy measures included in the bill, along with some in the Infrastructure package, would slash US carbon emissions by 880 million metric tons (0.88 gigatons) of annual CO2 emissions by 2030. However, as discussed below, the very recent elimination of the Clean Energy Performance Program (CEPP) from the Reconciliation package lowers the annual CO2 emissions reduction to only 0.38 gigatons by 2030. Moreover, buried within both bills are expenditures that would take us even further in the opposite direction – among them, massive subsidies for logging and highways that come with a steep carbon footprint. In combination with the elimination of CEPP, these climate-harming aspects of the Reconciliation and Infrastructure packages would actually increase net annual CO2 emissions by 2030 relative to current levels.

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