Adapting to Heat: A Texan’s Guide for Oregonians
In Texas, our summers were always hot. But not this hot. It was 81° the day I left Austin for Portland in late February of this year – what would have been a normal summer day, but in the midst of winter.
Just a few months later, record breaking heat waves have already scorched parts of Oregon, Texas, and the nation. McCaffrey and Eagle Point, OR, are battling wildfires. Last weekend, more than 39 million Americans were under an Excessive Heat Warning. Many homes in western Oregon weren’t built with centralized cooling and efficient heat pumps, and weatherization ...
Join Us This Summer at the Transportation Roadshow!
State legislators are hosting a 12-stop statewide listening tour this summer on major transportation issues. We need your voice! Our transportation system should be safer, greener, better maintained, and more affordable for all Oregonians. Your testimony during these public hearings will impact how legislators shape the future of our transportation infrastructure! Your participation will also help OEC deliver stronger climate-smart legislation for our state in 2025.
Background
As things currently stand, Oregon is struggling to raise enough money to fund our transportat...
2024 Legislative Session
OEC’s legislative advocacy in the 2024 short session will take key bills over the finish line, secure essential funding for environmental programs, and deliver on our promise to stay vigilant for the health of Oregon’s environment and communities.
Our advocacy helps ensure healthy air, thriving communities, clean and plentiful water, and climate resiliency. Our policies harness innovation and create new economic opportunities. They are grounded in preventing harm and advancing fairness.
YOU CAN GET INVOLVED: Sign up for our Grassroots Action Information Network ...
The Right to Refuse Dangerous Work: Another Victory for Worker Safety in a Warming Climate
As advocates for farmworkers, who endure intense manual labor in hazardous conditions such as pesticides, extreme heat, and smoke, PCUN recognizes SB 907 as a crucial stride towards safeguarding their well-being.
Clean Cars Are the Future – It’s Time to Update Oregon’s Standards
It is (past) time we break up with oil! Not only do the big changes in the price of gas affect our wallets, but burning fossil fuels is bad for the climate and our health. Oregon has the opportunity to be a leader in the transition to electric vehicles and get on the path to meeting our climate pollution reduction goals by adopting the Advanced Clean Car II Rules.
CLIMATE
Transportation is the largest climate-polluting sector in Oregon, making up about 40 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. Over 60 percent of this pollution comes from passenger cars and trucks. As ...
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 ...
Getting an electric vehicle just got easier!
Electric vehicles are only becoming more popular and affordable. Though we still need to find ways to drive less, EVs are a great alternative for cleaner mobility. Thanks to some new policies and state investments, many of them supported by OEC, there are more accessible options today for low carbon transportation.
Transportation is still responsible for nearly 40% of Oregon's greenhouse gas pollution. That means, in order to reach our climate goals, we’re all going to have to both drive less and use less fossil fuels when we do drive. The good news is, this is ...
Building for a Better Future
Right now, there is an important conversation happening in Oregon, and around the country, about buildings. The buildings in which we live and work are a critical piece of the climate puzzle. They are both vital to reducing climate change causing fossil fuels and our first line of defense against climate harms like extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and air pollution.
Buildings are the second largest–and growing–source of climate pollution in Oregon, responsible for 34 percent of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to the fossil fuels used for ...
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, ...
Summer isn’t the only time to worry about woodsmoke
As we roll into fall, many people start cleaning out their wood-burning stoves and fireplaces to start heating their homes, or just to get that cozy ambiance. What many people don’t realize is that, when a lot of people are burning wood in their homes, the cumulative effect on air quality can be similar to a wildfire. OEC has been advocating to reduce harmful air pollution from urban wood fires and to provide healthier options for those that rely on woodburning as a primary heat source.
Specifically, OEC has been working closely with Woodsmoke Free Portland and the ...
