Days of slow burning
We’re officially halfway through the 2023 legislative session here in Oregon, and there is A LOT to report about where we’re at on climate action.
The short version: Our top climate priorities for 2023 are still actively moving through the process and gaining momentum! Some other important legislative efforts have stalled and had some disappointing setbacks. Nothing is across the finish line yet, and the legislature is currently making hard choices due to a tight state budget, so we can’t stop pressing forward to ensure our elected leaders actually deliver on climate progress this year.
This year, Climate Solutions and many of our partner organizations have had a laser focus on ensuring the state legislature does two big things:
We are now past the first major legislative deadline of this year’s long session when policy bills were required to pass out of their first committee to still be considered “live” and move through the rest of the legislative process this session.
Great news so far on our top climate priority this session! I am happy to report that all Oregonians are closer to having access to safe and affordable homes and buildings that run on clean energy. The Senate Energy and Environment Committee voted to advance the Resilient, Efficient Buildings package of bills. It’s the first step to these bills becoming laws this year. These bills would supercharge the state’s efforts to ensure households and businesses can afford to upgrade to an electric heat pump. In addition, these bills help Oregonians weatherize and retrofit their home or business to make it more energy efficient and resilient. These policies are designed to leverage the massive amount of federal dollars available to Oregon to do this work now.
Together we have built incredible momentum, but we can’t stop now until the bills are through the legislative process and are signed into law. The next stop for the Building Resilience bills on their way through the process is the legislative budget committee (called the Joint Ways and Means Committee).
. Read our Resilient Building Coalition factsheet!
Congress recently passed historic legislation that will send billions of dollars into climate resilience, clean energy, and infrastructure to the states. Oregon is eligible for hundreds of millions of federal dollars for electrification, energy efficiency, and grid resilience but has received just a small amount so far. Fully leveraging federal funds requires us to expend a modest amount of state funds now. By doing so, we could see an exponential return on that investment, bringing benefits like more clean energy and resilient communities, grid and transmission improvements, zero-emission transportation, and job-creating clean energy projects. The Legislature needs to act in 2023 to position Oregon to maximize this once-in-a-generation funding infusion's economic and climate potential.
Unfortunately this year, the multi-million dollar question is whether the Legislature will actually fund the climate progress we desperately need at all. With the Governor and Joint Ways & Means co-chairs proposing across-the-board budget cuts, there’s a risk of slowing implementation of cornerstone climate programs, preventing new climate protections from being adopted, and hurting the State’s ability to leverage unprecedented federal investments in climate and communities. Legislators are currently deciding whether to invest in climate and communities or pour even more revenue into our already strong and healthy rainy day fund. We know that a modest investment today will help families have safer and cleaner homes, help communities reduce climate pollution, and create local clean energy jobs that can't be exported and will help our state weather any coming recession. Please see information below about how to urge the Ways & Means leadership to prioritize a strategic climate budget!
As Oregon accelerates the transition to a carbon-free grid, we need to make sure the state’s clean energy policy is consistent and inclusive of some of the state’s largest energy users. We also want to ensure how we transition to 100% clean energy results in economic benefits for communities across Oregon and increases resilience in the face of growing climate impacts. As the state transitions toward a cleaner and more equitable transportation system, leveraging federal funding to reduce the upfront cost of replacing diesel trucks, delivery vans, and buses with zero-emission vehicles is critical. These goals are reflected in the following bills:
There are other promising opportunities for climate progress moving forward this session as well. Those bills include SB 522 to finally update our outdated state greenhouse gas targets, SB 530 to maximize carbon sequestration and climate resiliency on our forests, agricultural lands, and wetlands, HB 2990 to fund community resilience hubs across the state, and HB 2613 to restore funding for the state’s popular EV rebate program. (This is not an exhaustive list!)
Last updated 4/25/2023
Read on for the latest updates on Climate Solutions' work in Oregon:
by Zach Baker on September 25, 2020
By no longer allowing industries to spew unlimited amounts of pollution into our air, DEQ's new cap-and-reduce policy can help transition Oregon to…
by Jonathan Lee on September 22, 2020
by Jonathan Lee on September 14, 2020
Thousands of people in the Rogue Valley have been displaced by wildfires and hundreds of homes, businesses, and community spaces have been destroyed…
by Gregg Small on September 10, 2020
Our climate movement is more unified than ever, but we're reaching a critical point where we must change a lot of things all at once. Let's do this…
by Jonathan Lee on September 9, 2020
If you live west of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest, you likely woke up yesterday to an awful late-summer surprise (if you weren't under…
by Zach Baker on September 1, 2020
One major component of the Oregon Climate Action Plan is a directive for the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to set up a new program…
by Victoria Paykar on August 7, 2020
Our state needs to prioritize cleaning up the delivery trucks, transit and school buses, big rigs, and other commercial vehicles that make up the…
by Jonathan Lee on July 28, 2020
Oregon legislators have proposed cutting the state’s only support for many rural and low-income communities to access solar and energy storage for…
by Victoria Paykar on July 7, 2020
The Portland metro region needs safe, efficient, and affordable transportation options. Let’s Get Moving 2020 will help make these improvements…
by Zach Baker on June 24, 2020
Last month, twelve state agencies delivered their plans to carry out the Governor’s Executive Order on climate. Here's what we know so far.
by Jonathan Lee on May 16, 2020
Many of the workers most essential in our communities and society, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, are also am
by Meredith Connolly on April 24, 2020
Global warming has not paused to respect social distancing during these ‘corona times.’ However, in early March, Oregon Governor Kate Brown delivered…
by Jonathan Lee on April 16, 2020
THIS WEEK: Help keep students fed in your community, give blood, and support your local domestic violence shelter.
by Jonathan Lee on April 10, 2020
Support the Oregon Food Bank, give to Causa's Oregon Worker Relief Fund, and get your COVID-19 news from reputable sources.
by Jonathan Lee on March 10, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: After partisan delay and denial tactics in the Oregon Legislature, Governor Kate Brown stepped up and fulfilled her long-…
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23 days. That’s how much time is left in the legislative session in Salem.