Bright Future chronicles the transition to the low-carbon economy, with particular focus on Northwest clean energy transformation. Its underlying premises are:

• We must address the climate imperative expressed in the Paris accord that we limit global warming to less than 2 degrees C.
• We can transition to a low-carbon clean energy economy by choosing less-carbon intensive fuels and more efficient systems for electricity and transportation.
• The clean energy transition is achievable, inevitable, and desirable.

Bright Future tracks include:

• Clean Power: How removing coal entirely from the Northwest’s power grid is possible by 2035, while limiting new natural gas and increasing renewable energy to attain a 100% clean grid.
• Moving Beyond Oil: How the Northwest will reduce petroleum consumption by one-half in the transportation section by 2030 and with 100% replacement of fossil fuel by 2050.
• Clean Energy Economy: How the clean energy economy is rapidly growing with investments in innovative renewable and low-carbon technologies, spurring economic development in the Northwest.
• Urban Clean Energy: How carbon reduction is underway in buildings, transportation, and energy supply at the local level, where 70% of carbon emissions are generated.
• Just Transition: How the transition to clean energy offers broadly shared economic opportunity and will include the communities that have borne the brunt of fossil fuel extraction and burning.

While our political system continues to offer alarmingly weak and tentative responses to how we will transform from a fossil to clean economy, the spectacularly hopeful news is this: people, communities, businesses, and energy markets are beginning to offer much more satisfying answers. The transition is–to a widely underappreciated degree–already on.