Gov. Kate Brown with Lincoln HS students on 2017 Clean Air Lobby Day. The session began with 3 key clean air initiatives, all of which appear to be dead.

Oregon Legislature follows industry playbook: kill Clean Air initiatives by not funding the agency to do the job.

We are devastated to announce, that as of yesterday, it appears our state lawmakers have caved to the industry power players who block good environmental regulation every time it comes along. Both have left Oregonians with the same bad air we had before. Despite heightened grassroots activism and a clear mandate from public health leaders, our state legislature continues to operate as it always has, letting business interests win most days with their outdated but monied arguments that environmental protection kills jobs. It's high time we move on to a more productive policy conversation where all parties can acknowledge that a clean, healthy environment is good for Oregonians' health and quality of life and smart for business.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Yesterday it was announced by leadership, due to relentless and increasingly intense industry lobbying, that it would drop HB2269, the bill to fund the remaining process work of Cleaner Air Oregon. Since April 2016, Governor Brown has directed a multi-agency work group tasked to review and improve the state's air regulatory program (it needs it!). Without additional funds, this productive, diverse committee cannot wrap up its work and the promise of Cleaner Air Oregon will not be realized. Of course, this is precisely why industry - which has also been a key stakeholder in the Rulemaking Advisory Committee -  is working so hard to kill this bill, too! For years the most effective tactic to kill regulations to protect our air, has been to successfully starve our Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) of the funding it needs to do its job well. This time is no different.

This of course is on the heels of the devastating gutting of SB1008, a bill intended to curb deadly diesel emissions in Oregon, but is now what Doctor Paul Lewis of Multnomah County Health Department calls an "extreme disappointment."  SB 1008 will have a public hearing/worksession Thursday to move forward on an action that merely hopes to accomplish what the state set out to do a decade earlier: clean up our dirty school bus fleet. Even with the free money from the Volkswagen settlement to fund this critical children's health initiative that is proven to reduce absenteeism, school districts are being allowed to prolong this key action for another 7 years.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? TELL LEADERSHIP YOU EXPECT THEM TO STAND UP TO INDUSTRY!

TAKE ACTION TODAY: IT'S ESSENTIAL TO WINNING THE LONG GAME

  Legislative Leadership needs to hear from you. We need to let them know how disappointed we are that the four leaders of the Democratic Party in the state legislature didn't stand up to the all too familiar and predictable efforts by industry to kill common sense efforts to protect Oregonians from air pollution. (click on the names to send email, or make a quick phone call and leave a message).

Senate President, Peter Courtney:  503-986-1600

Senate Majority Leader, Ginny Burdick:  503-986-1700

Speaker of the House, Tina Kotek:  503-986-1200

House Majority Leader, J. Williamson:  503-986-1436

Please help us today as we continue this fight. The legislature may have given up, but we haven't.

 

Yours for clean air,