We have just passed the halfway point of the 2019 legislative session, and this past Tuesday, April 9, marked the first real legislative deadline: bills that have not made it out of their committee of origin by that date are dead for the session. This deadline narrows the focus of bills the legislature is still working on. The Oregon Sierra Club has made some progress this session, but we must persevere to see our priority bills passed for the continued protection of our wild spaces, curbing pollution, and seeing a more just, equitable future for all.
The Clean Energy Jobs bill (HB 2020), which will put a price on greenhouse gas emissions using a “cap, trade, and invest” model while fostering a clean energy economy, continues to be the Chapter’s top legislative priority. We are working to limit giveaways in the bill to the largest corporate polluters and ensure equitable reinvestments to vulnerable communities already affected by climate change in Oregon. The Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction continues to assess amendment recommendations, but is expected to make its decisions on the final language for the bill soon. We are urging legislators to strengthen the bill by reducing greenhouse gas emissions more quickly than current targets, reducing allowances to “emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries”, and several other measures. Continue to contact your legislators to make the Clean Energy Jobs bill as strong as possible!
Another one of our top priorities is to implement stronger regulations for oil trains coming through Oregon. The 2016 explosion in Mosier made the dangers of oil trains astoundingly clear, but every day oil trains still make their way along the Columbia River and to the coast for overseas exportation. Oregon has the weakest oil-by-rail laws on the West Coast. Several bills to address this issue were considered, but now our focus is on HB 2209, which recently passed out of committee. While HB 2209 does not have everything we need in it, we support it in its current form as it is a substantial step forward in catching Oregon up to California and Washington in planning for and responding to inevitable future oil train derailments, spills, and fires. HB 2209 would require state approved oil spill cleanup plans, financial responsibility of the railroads for spills, and fees assessed to the railroads for oil spill cleanup plans. However, it also caps cleanup plans and financial responsibility at only 15% of an oil train’s capacity, and provides no public notification of oil trains or reporting on oil train traffic. We must continue to push for stricter regulations. Call your legislators to ensure this bill passes swiftly through the House and the Senate.
In our recent email alert, we asked you to contact their legislators about HB 2007, the “Diesel Bill.” While businesses must meet state safety regulations for diesel cars and trucks made after 2007, older diesel vehicles will continue polluting our air and water with toxins that should not be permitted under today’s standards. Pollution from Oregon’s diesel emissions causes 460 premature deaths and 145 heart attacks each year, in addition to other serious health ailments that cumulatively cost the state more than $3 billion annually. This must end! These pollutants have serious impacts on the most vulnerable communities, including children, elderly, and those already in poor health. HB 2007 will help businesses transition their fleets to cleaner fuel sources and allow for the creation of stricter idling laws to reduce pollution even further. Since we sent emails to legislators, HB 2007 has moved into the House Rules Committee for further revision where we hope our collective voices are heard. Click here to send a comment to the Rules Committee to strengthen and pass the diesel bill.
HB 2623 will impose a moratorium on all hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for oil and gas in Oregon. Fracking has been shown to have disastrous impacts in other states on surface water, ground water, and public health. With our lobbying efforts, we can prevent such devastation from coming to Oregon. The bill recently passed the House and is now headed to the Senate. Call your senators to ensure that it passes that chamber too!
A recent victory was SB 256, signed by Governor Kate Brown on March 27! SB 256 effectively bans oil, gas, and sulfur leasing in Oregon’s territorial sea. Legislators heard our voices and recognized the need to protect one of Oregon’s greatest treasures.
HB 3058 and HB 2619 would ban one pesticide and restrict the use of others. Neonicotinoids are a particularly potent family of pesticides whose use is detrimental to bees and other pollinators. In 2018, the European Union banned neonicotinoids in order to prevent bee populations from collapsing. Here in Oregon, we hope to limit and regulate their use, and to ban the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. It’s imperative that we limit and regulate harmful pesticides to help our pollinators; HB 3058 and HB 2619 would make great strides in doing so.
Next week, on Thursday, April 18, we are hosting an Action Night on HB 2015, the Equal Access to Roads Act. HB 2015 would allow full access to driver’s licenses without requiring proof of citizenship or legal residence. This would lift barriers for people who are undocumented, those who are houseless, and even those who have lost documents due to personal tragedy. Why is the Sierra Club working on this bill? We strongly believe that all people must be treated with dignity and respect regardless of where they were born. We believe we must address climate pollution in transportation not through bigoted policy, but by supporting a healthy, low carbon system. In our Action Night , we will focus on the Driver’s Licenses for All campaign and the connection between climate change and immigration specifically. Join us for dinner and a great conversation next Thursday. To RSVP to Action Night next week, just send us an email at oregon.chapter@sierraclub.org. Before then, we encourage you to contact your legislators to pass HB 2015 today!
Finally, we’re supporting Governor Brown’s effort in HB 2250, the Environmental Protection Act, to push back against the Trump Administration’s attempts to gut our national environmental laws and roll back our climate protections. This legislation will require Oregon’s environmental agencies to determine whether federal rollbacks will result in less protection for public health, the environment, or natural resources than was in place when Trump took office. If so, then we’ll hold the line and keep those pre-Trump protections in place. HB 2250 has already passed through the House and now waits to be voted on in the Senate. Call your senators now to ensure its swift passing!
To learn more about these and other legislative activities that we are working on, you can subscribe to our Legislative Action Team and join us at upcoming Action Nights! We think you’ll find it exciting and rewarding to get involved in our collective work to ensure a better future for ourselves, our descendants, and our planet.