Climate Emergency Reports

Good news, all CE priorities have Work Sessions scheduled or have already moved forward from their policy committee.

We’re in the process of gathering support for the Resilient Buildings legislation hearings. Amended text was rolled out for SB 868-1, 869-1, and 870-1 (SB 871-1 still lags behind the others) this week and an informational hearing was held March 14, 2023.

The League has identified six priority CE policy and budget topics. Find in previous LR reports additional background on each priority. Following are updates on those six topics.

HB 3196-1 authorizes the Environmental Quality Commission to establish by rule a fee to be paid by community climate investment entities. The funds come from the purchase of Community Climate Investments by the covered fuel suppliers.

Two bills will be up for hearings in the House Climate, Energy and Environment Committee this week. Both HB 3166 and HB 3056 are energy efficiency bills.

The next Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast is scheduled for Feb 22. It is unclear how the congressional debt ceiling issue, security market volatility, inflation – Fed/banking issues and other global risks will develop.

Numerous lawsuits are challenging Oregon’s DEQ CPP regulations. Here is one example of how to track them.

We collaborate with Natural Resource Action members on many Climate Change mitigation and adaptation policy topics.

There are a number of active state and federal lawsuits, (Jan 12, 2023 update) some which could assist in meeting Oregon's Net Zero GHG Emissions before 2050 targets and other lawsuits which challenge current Oregon DEQ CPP policy which would limit the use of fossil fuels, including diesel, natural gas, and propane over time.

Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) held a special informational meeting Jan 10 to update commissioners on measures to ensure the resource adequacy (RA) of the regional electrical grid.