60 results for tag: climate change


Clean Tech: Greener, Richer, Freer

More and more people in Oregon and across the United States are embracing electric vehicles and efficient HVAC systems to heat and cool their homes. Individual decisions like these will help Oregon deliver on its climate goals, but is our state missing a big opportunity to create thousands of jobs building clean energy technologies? Hear from industry experts who spoke at our latest Business & Environment Forum about Oregon’s chance to be a leader in clean tech.

Update: OR OSHA publishes final rules governing the right to refuse dangerous work

Earlier this year, OEC and partners helped win a bill to give workers the right to refuse hazardous work (SB 907). We stayed at the table and provided information on how Oregon OSHA should carry out the intent of the law. While we are disappointed that the rules are missing some key points of clarity around extreme heat, smoke, and other environmental threats, OEC and our partners plan to ramp up education and outreach to ensure workers understand their rights.

Summer Heat, OR OSHA’s Heat and Smoke Rules, and the Right to Refuse Dangerous Work

OEC is advocating for the strong rollout of Oregon’s new Right to Refuse Dangerous Work law which was signed by the Governor in May of 2023.

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.

NW Natural Wants to Raise Rates (Again). This is What You Need to Know.

NW Natural, a utility company that sells fossil “natural” gas (e.g. methane), wants to raise prices for Oregon customers for a second year in a row. What they are planning to do with the money is, quite frankly, jaw-dropping, which is why OEC and a group of environmental and community-based organizations, represented by the Green Energy Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School and Earthjustice, are pushing back as formal intervenors in an ongoing public “rate case” proceeding. To get to the bottom of it, I sat down with Nora Apter, OEC’s Climate Program Director, to learn more about what NW Natural is doing and why their customers–or ...

Climate Change and Agriculture: How are they connected and what’s to be done?

What is climate change and how does it work? We’ve all heard the phrase “climate change,” but what does that phrase mean? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines climate change as “a long-term (decades to centuries) change in any of a number of environmental conditions for a given place and time—such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, cloudiness, wind, and air circulation patterns.” So any shift in weather patterns lasting for a prolonged period of time can be called climate change. Today most people who say “climate change” are referring to the steady well-documented increases in Earth’s temperature ...

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 ...

Climate Change is Impacting Youth Mental Health

Do you find yourself or the youth in your life feeling anxious or depressed over the idea of climate change? A new study shows this is a problem sweeping Oregon and beyond. The Oregon Health Authority just released a report, Climate Change and Youth Mental Health in Oregon, documenting the impacts of climate change on the mental health of youth (ages 15-25). This study was completed under the direction of Governor Brown’s Executive Order 20-04, also known as the Oregon Climate Action Plan. The study, one of the largest in the nation to date, documents a growing youth mental health crisis in Oregon. Climate stressors, including climate anxiety, ...

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 electricity to power our homes and buildings, and the fossil gas piped in for heating ...

Traveling This Summer: Try these climate-smart travel ideas

With summer just around the corner, many people are stir-crazy, willing to tolerate a seemingly less risky variant of Covid, and ready for a vacation. Whether it’s a family reunion, catching up with old friends in faraway places, or just seeing a bit more of the world, lots of us are looking to travel this year.   Given what we’ve all been through, it’s long overdue. The pent-up demand for travel is so strong that it almost makes it easy to forget that traveling can be a big contributor to climate change, the world’s most important “inconvenient truth.”  Of course, if you’re reading this, you’re likely someone who cares deeply ...