Well, we’re in the home stretch of the 2019 session now, with just about a month left to get everything done. Most of the Sierra Club’s top priorities are still awaiting a final determination of whether they will pass, and how strong they will be if they do. Now is a critical time for Sierra Club members to stay engaged and make sure we get the strongest possible outcomes for our priority bills.
(Photo credit: Tony Hernandez/Oregon Environmental Council)
The Clean Energy Jobs bill (HB 2020) - the cap and trade bill which will put a price on greenhouse gas emissions and which has been much discussed this session - continues to be the Chapter’s top legislative priority. The bill passed out of the Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction on May 17 and is now in the Ways and Means Committee. The legislation continues to be complicated and it raises some valid concerns from environmental justice groups, but unfortunately there may be little opportunity to substantively change it at this point. The Sierra Club has worked this session to limit giveaways to corporate polluters in the bill and to ensure equitable reinvestments to vulnerable communities already affected by climate change in Oregon. The bill that has emerged is not as strong as we have advocated for it to be, but we believe it is still a step in the right direction. We continue to have discussions with our equity partners to shape our positioning on the bill, and in any event, we recognize that it will not be a panacea to our state’s climate crisis. Much more will need to be done to both make sure the implementation of the bill is as strong as it can be, and to make sure we are developing the next round of even more visionary climate policy for Oregon. Please continue to contact your legislators to urge them to pass a strong Clean Energy Jobs bill!
Another one of our top priorities has been to implement stronger regulations for oil trains coming through Oregon, since our state has the weakest oil-by-rail laws on the West. HB 2209 passed out of its policy committee in April and is now in the Ways and Means 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. Call your legislators to ensure this bill passes swiftly through the House and the Senate.
Legislators still need to hear from constituents about HB 2007, the “Diesel Bill.” While businesses must meet state safety regulations for diesel cars and trucks made after 2007, older diesel vehicles continue polluting our air and water with toxins that should not be permitted under today’s standards. Though it has been dramatically scaled back from its early incarnation, HB 2007 will still help to phase out old on-road engines, stop the addition of old trucks to fleets, clean up construction equipment, use the VW settlement funds to clean up diesel engines, and create a task force to develop new funding strategies to support businesses in upgrading their fleets. HB 2007 is in the Ways and Means Committee awaiting passage. Call your legislators to ensure we pass a strong Diesel bill this session.
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. The bill has now passed both the House and Senate, and should be on its way to the Governor by the time you read this! Though fracking isn’t happening in Oregon right now, this is a major victory to pass this policy and get out ahead of future problems in our state.
HB 2619 would ban the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos in Oregon and it is still alive in the House Rules Committee. While we had higher hopes for passing progressive legislation this session to restrict pesticides in our state, most of the other bills have died. But passing HB 2619 would be a great step forward and would get one toxic pesticide out of Oregon, so please contact House Rules Committee members and urge them to pass HB 2619.
We continue to oppose SB 451, which would award renewable energy credits to municipal waste incineration at the Covanta Marion incinerator. SB 451 would set a bad precedent in attempting to classify trash incineration as clean energy, which could have implications for future green legislation and prevent the awarding of those energy credits to true renewables. The bill is currently in the Senate Rules Committee and may be getting voted on soon. Please contact members of Senate Rules and urge them to kill this garbage fire of a bill.
(Photo Credit: Tony Hernandez/Environmental Council)
Finally, we were proud to stand with Governor Kate Brown on May 24 as she signed HB 2250 in a public ceremony at OMSI in Portland. This bill - the Oregon Environmental Protection Act - pushes 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. We are grateful to Governor Brown for her environmental leadership on this issue!
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.
