Diving Into the 2021 Legislative Session

May 4, 2021

An Oregon Legislative Committee Update

Equity and Efficiency

The Legislative Committee hosted a fantastic Action Night on April 7th. More than 25 people made calls to legislators, urging them to support two bills that we hope to see passed during the current session:

  • House Bill 2488-A makes statewide changes to land use planning goals to reflect environmental justice through inclusion of underrepresented communities in land use decision making.
  • House Bill 2062-A addresses climate change and air quality by establishing stronger energy efficiency standards for certain appliances sold in Oregon.

We’re glad we can say so far, so good—both bills are currently moving forward through the legislative process! We’ll be making the next push at our second action night, Thursday, May 6th from 6:30-7:30 PM. Register here to join us.

Big Money and Bad Politics

Did you know that Oregon is one of only five states with no limits on political campaign contributions? Our state is also one of just 11 states that impose no limits on individual donors. In Nov. 2020, voters passed Ballot Measure 107, which amended the Oregon Constitution and required the Legislature to implement campaign finance limits.

Three bills have been introduced that would place limits on campaign contributions:
House Bill 2680 (Rayfield), House Bill 3343 (Salinas, Clem), and Senate Bill 336 (Golden).

Our expectation is that these 3 bills will be combined into a single bill and rolled out late in the session. We’ll be watching for this to happen, and plan to push for the strongest bill, including limits on “dark money,” when that time comes.

The Forest and the Trees

The Oregon Chapter recently established a Forest Issues Team, and members have been engaging with the legislative process for several forest-related bills. In March, the Chapter submitted written testimony regarding HB 2379, the bill to reinstate Oregon’s timber harvest tax.

Here’s an update on forest-related bills we’ve been following:

Senate Bill 762 is a complex bill addressing issues related to wildfire. This bill is a mixed bag. We are supportive of some aspects, but are concerned about the possibility of massive amounts of thinning away from communities, which would release huge amounts of carbon and reduce canopy cover while having little chance of reducing weather-driven fires like the Labor Day fires of 2020. Along with conservation allies across the state, we are advocating for funding to be focused on assisting homeowners with air filtration, home hardening and defensible space, establishing smoke shelters, and limiting fuels reduction to areas right around communities and homes. Read more in the Oregon Conservation Network’s SB 762 information sheet. This bill is currently in the Ways and Means Committee, and will probably be subject to continuing negotiations through much of the session.

House Bill 2379 would reinstate a severance tax on timber at the time of harvest. Rural communities have faced massive cuts in services since the timber lobby persuaded the legislature to eliminate harvest taxes in the 1990s. As a matter of justice and equity for these communities, timber corporations and real estate investment trusts that own huge swaths of private timberland across the state should pay their fair share as they employ highly destructive logging practices on landscapes in these watersheds. See "Big money bought the forests. Small timber communities are paying the price" and "Timber Tax Cuts Cost Oregon Towns Billions. Then Polluted Water Drove Up the Price" for more of the story. This bill is in the Revenue Committee, and will also continue to be negotiated for some time.

House Bill 2357-A would make reforms to the board of the Oregon Forest Resource Institute (OFRI) and establish a Sound Forest Practices Fund. The bill would redirect funds that have been misused for propaganda and illegal lobbying and establish a Sound Forestry Practices Subaccount and a Family Forestlands Subaccount, as subaccounts of the State Forestry Department Account. The Oregon Conservation Network has produced an excellent information sheet about HB 2357-A. And this article, "What happened when a public institute became a de facto lobbying arm of the timber industry," from The Oregonian is a must-read for more understanding of the story about OFRI.

To learn more about the Oregon Chapter’s Forest Issues Team and how you can get involved, contact Carol at illinoisvalley@oregon.sierraclub.org.