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Of the 469 large renewable projects that applied to connect to Bonneville’s grid since 2015, only one has reached approval. Those are longer odds than in any other region of the country, the news organizations found. No major grid operator is as stingy as Bonneville in its approach to financing new transmission lines and substations needed to grow the power supply, according to industry groups that represent power producers.

Efforts to bypass Bonneville didn’t start until this year, when Oregon and Washington legislators considered bills to create their own state bonding authorities for upgrading the region’s high-voltage network.

Both bills died.

The grid’s severe constraints are hindering the Northwest at a time when it desperately needs more electricity. Oregon and Washington lawmakers lured power-guzzling data centers with tax breaks in recent years, and the industry has helped drive electricity demand sky high.

Having failed to add enough green-energy sources or any new gas-fired power, the Northwest buys electricity from elsewhere, at high prices, during extreme weather. Rates paid by customers of major Oregon utilities are now 50% higher than five years ago. The worsening energy shortage threatens millions of residents with continual rate hikes and sporadic power outages — not to mention dashing the Northwest’s hopes of drastically reducing its contribution to climate change.

Last year, lawmakers recriminalized drug possession, a swift reversal just as Measure 110-funded programs were starting to demonstrate their impact.

Some of the funding for the new treatment and recovery services has, for now, remained intact, with innovative programs chipping away at the crisis, though with reduced resources. The Guardian visited organizations across the state that are successfully turning people’s lives around, meeting with people who have, against steep odds, found recovery.

In experiments at Stanford University, chemists discovered that microdroplets in fine sprays of water generate streaks of “microlightning”. When surrounded by the right mix of gases, these sparks power chemical reactions that synthesise many molecules for life.

Prof Richard Zare, a chemist who led the team, said: “This is a real contribution to understanding how you can go from non-life to life. You have water sprays all over the place, particularly around rocks, and there are crevices in rocks where these chemicals can accumulate.”