13 results for tag: economy

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.

Climate Protection Win for Oregon Workers

Industry plaintiffs brought two claims against rules to protect workers in Oregon from the harmful and dangerous impacts of exposure to heat and smoke. Both suits were dismissed “with prejudice” which means they were dismissed permanently and cannot be brought to Court again.   On December 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court in Medford dismissed a lawsuit brought by Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce, Associated Oregon Loggers Inc., and the Oregon Forest Industries Council. The suit was intended to roll back a set of rules that Oregon OSHA put in place in June 2022 - at the urging of OEC and partners – to provide Oregon workers with ...

Youth activism continues to inspire, push for bold climate action

Youth from around the globe came together for an intense week of climate action this September. They organized gatherings, rallies, marches, speeches, direct actions, and events to bring awareness to the current climate crisis and push decision-makers to take meaningful action on climate.

Trump didn’t just attack California’s air quality

President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency are attempting to undo the work of thousands of Oregonians and dozens of organizations that successfully demanded Clean Car Standards in Oregon in 2006.

Oregonians feel climate disruption, unfinished business

Climate disruption, along with unchecked air and water pollution from dirty energy sources, is harming Oregonians, and for too long, our leaders have put off addressing climate change in a comprehensive way.

Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown: Mathematics Springs Eternal

Guest Blog Post, David Michael Smith, SAGE Hope doesn’t usually equate with the empiricism of mathematics, but I left a recent lecture by Paul Hawken with a renewed optimism about the future of planet earth after hearing his explanation of Project Drawdown’s “new math” approach to climate change. Hawken, a well-known entrepreneur, author and environmentalist, has been at the leading edge of climate change research for decades. His appearance in Portland, as a Visiting SAGE, was part of a series of speakers brought to town by Senior Advocates for Generational Equity (SAGE), an organization dedicated to leaving earth a better place for ...

OEC supports ballot measure to fund “Cherriots”

The public transportation system serving Salem-Keizer residents has a great name – “Cherriots” – conjuring up images of beautiful horse-drawn carriages, but Cherriots has been struggling for years to meet the community’s needs. In fact, if you want to take the bus on the weekend or after 9:00 PM, tough luck! Part of the problem is the fact that Oregon lags far behind other states in supporting the daily operations of its local transit systems. From Basin Transit Service in Klamath Falls to TriMet in the Portland metro area, bus drivers and rail operators are getting people the places they need to go and creating broader community benefits, ...

The Pope: 5 lessons on tending to the earth

By Danny Schaffer When Pope Francis arrives in United States on September 22, he will undoubtedly convey the Catholic Church’s enduring message of peace and good will for all humankind. But he’s also likely to bring another, more sobering message that he first presented in his Encyclical (Laudato Si), “On Care for our Common Home,” in May. The message is that we cannot count on the prevailing “techno-economic paradigm” to combat the global environmental crisis that we see manifesting around us – ranging from climate change to species loss, from deforestation to soil and water degradation. “The earth, our home, Pope Francis ...

400 Oregon Businesses Call for Climate Action

350 is a significant number when it comes to climate. In the words of Dr. James Hansen, one of the most respected climatologists in the world,  "CO2 will need to be reduced from [current levels] to at most 350 ppm to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed." The current level at which we're pumping CO2 into the atmosphere is not feasible if we are to sustain a healthy and stable climate. And right now the ratio of carbon dioxide molecules to all other molecules in the atmosphere is 403 ppm, well above Dr. Hansen's benchmark of 350 ppm. What does this mean exactly? It signifies we're releasing too much carbon—m...