28 results for author: Nora Apter

Celebrating the launch of the “Oregon Clean Grid Collaborative”

Authors: Nora Apter, Senior Program Director for Climate, OEC; Nicole Hughes, Executive Director, Renewable Northwest Lack of a regional market and lack of transmission have been cited as two of the most pressing challenges to achieving state clean energy mandates. Making sure grid planning, governance, markets, and investments are aligned to achieve 100% clean energy is all the more important as we continue to pursue policies that accelerate the electrification of our transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors—all of which will depend on a power grid strong enough to meet increasing demand. Oregon clean energy, environmental justice, ...

Climate Win! Oregon Lawmakers Take Powerful Action Passing the ‘Climate Resilience Package’

With over $90 million in funding and strategic leveraging of federal investments, this victory represents significant progress in our relentless pursuit of a climate-resilient future for Oregon.

Natural Lands, Natural Climate Solutions

Oregon’s natural and working lands have an important role to play in protecting the climate.

Climate Champion: Governor Brown’s Legacy and the Path Ahead

Governor Brown delivered historic climate policy protections. Now it’s up to Governor Kotek to build on this progress.

New Initiatives for Safe, Affordable, Climate-Friendly Homes and Buildings

The 2023 legislative session presents a vital opportunity to make progress in achieving our climate goals and protect families and communities from ever-worsening climate impacts. OEC is excited to support a “Building Resilience” policy package this session that will cut pollution and increase the climate resilience of our homes and buildings   Recognizing the vital need to transform and expand Oregon’s building stock in a way that maximizes climate, public health, affordability, and job creation benefits for Oregon, the 2022 legislature established the “Resilient, Efficient Buildings (REBuilding) Task Force.” The REBuilding ...

REBuilding Task Force Delivers Recommendations

The buildings we use for homes, workplaces, and gathering spaces play a special role in the future of our changing climate. They can provide a safe place to escape extreme heat, storms, or wildfires caused by climate change. But when those same buildings rely on fracked methane (“natural”) gas, the air insides in unsafe to breathe and methane is one of the worst climate pollutants. A special state task force came together to tackle this issue and recently recommended some practical, common-sense policies that can make Oregon’s buildings safer, lower energy bills, and reduce pollution. Now we need to act on their recommendations. Oregon ...

The Inflation Reduction Act for Oregon

Only a few months ago, things were not looking good for federal climate action. The Supreme Court had just voted to strike down the Clean Power Plan. Senator Manchin of West Virginia had just announced he would not support a reconciliation package with new spending on climate change. And, after decades of denial, delay, and failed attempts, everyone’s hope was wearing thin.  Then, seemingly out of thin air, Senate Democrats announced they had struck a deal on a new package that would inject an unprecedented $370 billion in climate and clean energy programs nationwide. Weeks later, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into ...

Climate Victory! Oregon Clean Fuels Standard Now Strongest in the Nation

Oregon just took a huge step toward reducing climate and air pollution from our top emitting sector. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) today adopted an expanded Clean Fuels Program, more than tripling our existing standard to make it the strongest in the nation. See our joint press release here. The EQC-adopted rules expand the CFP to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels 20% below 2015 levels by 2030 and 37% below 2015 levels by 2035. These significantly strengthened carbon intensity reduction targets will be essential to ensuring near-term reductions of climate emissions and co-pollutants in the transportation ...

No time to burn: let’s keep the future of gas short in Oregon 

By: Nora Apter, the Climate Program Director for Oregon Environmental Council. Greer Ryan, Oregon Clean Buildings Policy Manager with Climate Solutions. When it comes to global warming pollution, we’ve heard a lot about the dangers of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But did you know that methane, the primary ingredient in so-called “natural” gas, is approximately 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 20 year timeframe? Fossil “natural” gas is far from being the safe, clean product that gas utilities and fossil fuel companies claim. In reality, gas is not good for you or the ...

Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program: Building on past successes to maximize climate, health and economic benefits in Oregon

From the Climate Protection Program to the Clean Truck Rules, Oregon has made significant progress in recent months to tackle climate emissions from our top polluting sector: transportation. Yet, even with these important policy achievements, Oregon is still not on track to meet the level of progress needed or envisioned to achieve our climate goals. While our state has reemerged as a national climate leader, we will need to go bigger and bolder every year to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. If we want to reach our climate goals, we need to be really bold, and that means changing the way we get around. For starters, we’ll need to ...