2025 Legislative Session
OEC champions policies that safeguard Oregon’s environment and invest equitably in our communities.
This session we’re focused on strengthening state-level protections for our climate and groundwater, supporting initiatives to protect Oregonians from toxics, and investing in climate smart transportation.
CLIMATE | WATER | TRANSPORTATION | ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Oregon has made significant progress in protecting our environment and uplifting our communities. To stay on track, and with federal protections at risk, these initiatives must be fully funded. Now more than ever, we’re working to ensure state agencies are adequately resourced to do their jobs effectively.
CLIMATE:
BACKGROUND: The 2025 session is all about ensuring Oregon stays on track to achieve its climate goals. Because climate disruption impacts everything from the number of days kids are in school to water availability to our economic vitality, the Oregon legislature must take action every year. Our state needs policies that address severe climate harms and rising utility bills, leverage investments to support local jobs, and remove barriers to meet our state’s clean energy goals. While one-time federal funds were essential in launching many of these vital initiatives, state funds are necessary to ensure they remain ongoing.
SOLUTIONS WE SUPPORT: OEC is pushing for stronger climate policies to boost community resilience, speed up clean energy adoption, and enhance our state’s economy.
✔ Remove clean energy barriers. To meet Oregon’s clean energy targets and keep energy costs manageable, it is essential for lawmakers to remove barriers that prevent the expansion of renewable energy sources.
✔ Expand clean energy infrastructure. Oregon can grow the state’s renewable energy production and make it more accessible at the same time. By investing in a comprehensive energy grid with modern transmission lines and energy storage systems, lawmakers can optimize and expand our clean energy infrastructure.
✔ Fully-fund incentive programs to keep people safe. Incentive programs, like those that help working families access efficient and life-saving cooling options, are essential to a fair transition. We also need to protect ratepayers from being forced to pay for fossil fuel infrastructure that increases pollution.
✔ Ensure we have the right people and tools to get the job done. State agencies are responsible for analyzing data, providing technical assistance to businesses and landowners and staying on top of emerging trends. We will advocate for budgets to ensure programs are implemented well.
✔ Strengthen climate justice. It’s not news that many Oregonians, especially communities of color, low-wealth, and those that are rural and remote disproportionately suffer more from the effects of climate change. Applying a climate justice lens to broader statewide priorities, including housing and building resilience, will help to ensure that landmark policies like the 100% Clean Energy plan and Climate Protection Program deliver benefits to all Oregonians, regardless of their zip code or income.
WATER:
BACKGROUND: Last September, the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) unanimously approved new groundwater allocation rules that ensure more sustainable groundwater use while protecting existing surface water rights. 2025 is our chance to ensure the monitoring and reporting systems necessary to enforce Oregon’s water rules are properly funded and implemented.
SOLUTIONS WE SUPPORT: We’re building on the momentum gained by our recent OWRD victory to continue pushing for cleaner, more plentiful water for all Oregonians.
✔ Effective and equitable water rights transfers. Coordinated, non-siloed management is key to long-term water sustainability in Oregon. That’s why water rights transfers are a top priority for OEC and our partners in the Oregon Water Partnership this session. We’re pushing for legislation that ensures water rights transfers aren’t detrimental to streamflow. More water in the rivers means healthier wildlife, healthier water, and healthier Oregonians.
✔ Safe and reliable drinking water. Domestic wells owners are not protected when it comes to water quality. This session, we’re working on new processes to safeguard the safety of drinking water wells, and hold property owners accountable to reporting on the quality of their well water to renters, buyers, and the DEQ.
✔ Informed water management. Transparency is key when it comes to long-term water sustainability; we all deserve to know how this fundamental resource is being managed in our state. We’re working to ensure funding for the development of a Water Data Portal, a database where all the water-related information collected by state agencies will be made available to the public in a manner that safeguards privacy while providing essential information.
✔ Improved management of groundwater quality. Oregon recently updated the rules governing the issuance of new groundwater permits, ensuring that the groundwater resource is sustainably managed now and for future generations. Turning to the groundwater quality, we are working with agencies and legislators to improve the rules for identifying, reducing and eliminating groundwater contamination.
TRANSPORTATION:
BACKGROUND: Oregon’s transportation system will be a primary focus for state lawmakers during the 2025 session. It has been nearly a decade since the legislature passed comprehensive transportation legislation. Since then, declining gas tax revenues have pushed our state’s primary funding mechanism to the brink. Oregon’s most expensive projects, many of which are mandated by past legislation, have seen their price tags balloon due to inflation. Meanwhile, projects that make it safer for kids to get to school or to repair roads and bridges remain behind. At the same time, the transportation sector remains the largest source of climate pollution in our state.
SOLUTIONS WE SUPPORT: This session OEC will be pushing for legislation that diversifies revenue for our transportation system, and expands multi-modal transportation, vehicle electrification, and community safety.
✔ Mitigate environmental impacts. We are seeking strategic solutions to fairly and sustainably increase revenues and ensure these funds are invested in decarbonizing our transportation sector while expanding clean, safe transportation options across the state.
✔ Equitable revenue solutions. We need a safe, accessible, affordable, clean transportation system that focuses on building out complete networks for all users and modes, and our revenue solutions in 2025 should be designed to help get us there.
✔ Climate and equity funding. The most impactful safety and active transportation programs are oversubscribed. Increasing funding for these existing programs with climate and equity guardrails needs to be a priority in 2025.
✔ Public transit expansion. Public transit is the best alternative to drive-alone trips for most people; we need to expand investments in service and operations and ensure it reaches every community and ability level.
✔ Electrification expansion. Minimize the need for drive-alone trips, electrify the rest. Support electrification of everything with wheels including bikes, cars, trucks and buses.
✔ Cross-policy investments. The State of Oregon needs integrated planning to make sure we don’t unintentionally make problems worse. For example, housing and transportation are intimately linked. Rather than encouraging sprawl and increasing how much Oregonians drive, we should have well plan, transit, bike, and pedestrian supported development.
✔ Stronger accountability. Close the current gap between state climate goals and actual spending with stronger accountability mechanisms for transportation plans and projects.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH:
BACKGROUND: The 2025 session will continue to modernize Oregon’s environmental health policies to address toxic chemicals, and avoid contamination of food, water, soil and even in the bodies of Oregonians. OEC’s focus will include work on food additives and PFAS – a class of 10,000+ ‘forever chemicals’ that lurk in everyday products like cookware, toys, and cosmetics, and pose serious health risks like cancer, liver damage, fertility issues, and low birth weight. It’s time to move away from toxics, and shift to safer alternatives to protect health and the environment in Oregon.
SOLUTIONS WE SUPPORT: OEC is focused on passing meaningful legislation to safeguard children and workers. We’re working to prevent the use of toxics in food and products and the subsequent accumulation of hazardous chemicals in waste and water systems.
✔ Promote children’s health. Children are at a higher risk for toxic exposure because of their physiology and behaviors such as crawling. Toxic chemicals also disrupt children’s ongoing development. We should continue to protect Oregon’s children from toxics and build on efforts like the Toxic Free Kids Act and the Toxic Free Cosmetic Act.
✔ Prevent exposure to toxics for workers. The materials used by workers and their protective equipment should be free of toxic chemicals that harm health. To protect workers, we support safe alternatives whenever possible.
✔ Reduce contamination. By stopping toxic contamination at the source, we can prevent these chemicals from getting into our soil and water where they impact the crops, livestock and fish on which we depend.
✔ Ensure clean drinking water. Keeping contaminants out of our water means healthy Oregonians and cost savings. Preventing contamination is less expensive than cleaning up messes.
✔ Prevent toxic product dumping. As other states increasingly phase out harmful products and toxic chemicals added to foods, Oregon shouldn’t become a dumping ground for companies who can’t sell these contaminated products elsewhere.
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