43 results for tag: climate

Climate Protection Program Back in The Spotlight After Year Long Pause

Last December, the oil and gas industry and their allies delivered a devastating blow to climate justice in our state.  The Oregon Court of Appeals invalidated Oregon’s landmark Climate Protection Program (CPP) based on a procedural technicality. The litigation was spearheaded (unsurprisingly) by the oil and gas industries most responsible for climate pollution in our state. The CPP represents a historic victory for Oregon’s climate, local economies, and communities – especially Black, Indigenous, people of color, low-income, rural, and other communities who stand to benefit the most from emissions reductions and investments under the ...

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 (GAIN) email list. We’ll send you ways to show up, communicate with legislators, ...

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.

Checklist: DIY Home Heat Pump Maintenance

Like all heating and cooling systems, proper maintenance helps heat pumps operate at optimal efficiency.

Using Data to Save Lives in Extreme Heat: Multnomah County’s New Interactive Heat Vulnerability Index Tool

Oregon’s most populous county is harnessing data to help decision-makers and emergency response groups prioritize areas for urgent and long-term solutions to protect people from dangerous heat.

Earth Day 2023: Reflections and Resolve

For Earth Day, we asked OEC team members to reflect on their connections to the natural world and their commitment to protecting the environment.

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 ...

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 ...