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Tracking League Priorities and Community Impact LWVOR has developed a simplified Volunteer Data Collection Form for Leagues to enter their event activities, volunteer hours, and other information as part of the LWVUS Annual League Survey. We received feedback from several people that the provided data tracking spreadsheet is complicated to use so we offer our new form as an alternative. At the end of the calendar year, all data will be shared with local Leagues and LWVUS. Now is a great time to add metrics from the election-related events your League hosted over the last several weeks! Note: If your League is already tracking data and you have a system that works for you, there is no need to complete this form. Also, we would happily provide a copy of this form for your League to use if you prefer. Report The True Value Of Contributions To Our Communities And For Grant Funding Volunteer hours can translate into an exact value* that can help meet matching requirements or give funders an idea of what the League could do with more resources. *Important to show how effective the organization is in achieving its mission. Illustrate A More Complete Picture Of Volunteer Impact Tracking will answer key questions for donors:  Why should they donate to your organization over others? Track volunteer time to understand, internally, where volunteers are making the most impact. Data-based evidence on which program or activity volunteers are most effective can steer better decisions for where to invest more time, training and investment. Recognize And Retain Incredible Volunteers With Meaningful Moments Some volunteers just like to know how much of a difference their time makes.  Recognizing volunteer efforts highlighting certain involvement milestones or making it easy to define their contribution to an individual or team accomplishment is always appreciated.  These gestures help build closer teams and communities and increase retention, a common challenge for nonprofits. We hope the form simplifies the process of collecting your event and program details, so we can all better understand League priorities and community impact. Questions about the form or want to email your results to us directly? Contact us at media@lwvor.org

See the June All-Members Newsletter here.

Lisa Bentson was elected to the office of LWVOR President by delegates from around the state on May 19, 2024, at the biennial LWVOR Council. Below are Lisa's first remarks as President. May 19, 2024 By LWVOR President Lisa Bentson As President, my main goal is to support the amazing work you all do and further our purpose of “Empowering Voters and Defending Democracy.” “Communications” is the theme of my term. It is at the core of our purpose, and I look forward to enhancing what we are already doing. I’m happy to report that in the past few years as we’ve emerged from Covid, LWVOR has initiated, on Becky’s encouragement, a number of Lateral groups statewide. We recently started a Communications lateral group that has met monthly with good attendance. Our office staff are the lead for these meetings, planning and agendas. One of the first things we’d like to have is a “Communications Chair.” With Sarah and Abby handling logistics, this position is not onerous. We’re looking for an enthusiastic person to work with our staff and complimentary lateral groups for the good of all. If I was not President this term, I would happily take that Chair as it is critical for the success of our organization. Please let me know of your interest. In addition, we have created a League Leader Google group that is active as well as our online Forums. Not surprisingly, the Communication Forum is one of our most popular according to Sarah. As I hope you agree, our focus between now and November must be communicating our core values anywhere and everywhere we can. Just this past week, our staff person Sarah and I met and have initiated a Marketing Plan. This will guide us in our outreach to reach as many Oregonians as possible for the General election. We have added some new tools to our toolkit, so please be on the lookout for more on this soon. “As I hope you agree, our focus between now and November must be communicating our core values anywhere and everywhere we can.” I joke that everyday I am working on League tasks I learn something new. It is my intention to continue doing so. One way will be to communicate with our Local Leagues in a variety of ways. This helped me so much when I started as Membership Chair with LWVOR when I had recently become an Oregonian. My goal was to visit every League and I got close. It was during Covid, so some of those meetings were virtual, but some were in-person. Thank goodness we’re back to face-to-face meetings that include our virtual participants. I grew up in a very politically active family in the 60’s. The family mantra was: “If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.” My father ran for State Assembly one year and for Halloween I wore his sandwich board signs saying “Elect Jim Bentson for State Assembly” as my costume. My mother attended the National Presidential Conventions every 4 years including Chicago in 1968. I rarely saw my father worried, but he was during that Convention. She made it home just fine. Thank you for allowing me to serve our League as President. A big thank you to Becky Gladstone, your outgoing President and Co-President, for her hours of mentoring. We have met weekly since last fall and I truly and greatly appreciate her support. Thank you to each of you for your dedication to our purpose and all of the hard work you do. --

May 17, 2024 League of Women Voters of Oregon Contact: mockelection@lwvor.org OSME RESULTS are IN! Students across Oregon voted in the LWVOR 2024 Primary Oregon Student Mock Election (OSME), for a realistic voting experience endorsed by Oregon’s Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade and Department of Education. The League of Women Voters of Oregon created 12 different mock ballots for each local jurisdiction with student registrations. Student ballots mirrored Oregon statewide Primary election ballots, with the same three voting options. Students first decided to vote as a Republican, Democratic, or non affiliated voter. Then they could vote for US President (partisan), Oregon Attorney General (partisan), and Oregon Supreme Court Position 1 (nonpartisan) on their chosen ballot. Each of the 12 ballots included a fourth nonpartisan local ballot measure or candidate race. LWVOR invited every Oregon public school district and private/charter/homeschool educator to OSME! Registered educators received ballots, instructions, and lesson plans with linked resources to prepare their students for an informed voting experience.  OSME registered over 4600 students from an impressive 26 schools and 14 counties all around Oregon:  Baker, Clackamas, Coos, Deschutes, Douglas, Hood River, Klamath, Lane, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, and Yamhill. “The election went well and sparked some interesting discussions. Kids are excited to see how our results compare to other high schoolers and the statewide primary races.” Roseburg educator “We did a ranked choice voting activity today and then had them do their LWV ballots. This worked great for our elections unit.” Deschutes County educator Here are the 2024 Oregon Student Mock Election (OSME) RESULTS: Republican: Donald Trump won US President (uncontested). Michael Cross won Oregon Attorney General with 59% of the student vote. Democratic: Marianne Williamson won US President with 51% of the student vote. Joe Biden, running for US President, received 49% of the student vote. Dan Rayfield won Oregon Attorney General with 51% of the student vote. Nonpartisan: Stephen K Bushong won Oregon Supreme Court Position 1 with 90% of the student vote. Here are some examples of student local ballot race RESULTS: 75% of Eugene students voted YES on Ballot Measure 20-349 to amend Eugene’s city charter to use the STAR Voting Method. 50% of Douglas County students voted for John W Hanlin for County Sheriff in a 3-way race. 85% of Tri-County area students (Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington) voted yes on Ballot Measure 26-244, to support issuing Zoo bonds. Free and open LWVOR.org mock election resources are available to educators YEAR-ROUND, including our award-winning Civics Education curriculum.

See the May All-Members newsletter here.

See the April All-Members newsletter here.

Shirley was born in 1933 near Puget Sound in the very small town of La Conner, Washington, 60 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, Canada and lived in the same house (divided) with her father’s parents.  That was her father’s reward for running the commercial chicken ranch east of La Conner.  She had a sister, two years younger.  Shirley loved school and after six years of good teachers moved with her family to a new house where another sister and her brother were born, and she entered a much larger school in the town of Mount Vernon, the county seat. She continued to enjoy school (most days) and graduated as Valedictorian in a class of 115 students. Shirley had discovered journalism in high school and attended Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon for a well-thought-of journalism professor, and she wanted to learn from the best.  Shirley met Milt in that class, discovering many things in common, though his second year he changed his major to theology and wanted to change schools to study with a professor he had met over the summer.  Milt’s goal was to become a Methodist minister. By early summer of 1953, they had confided their intentions to both sets of parents and bought three rings, announcing their official engagement before transferring to the College (now University) of Puget Sound in Tacoma as upper class students (juniors).  Milt was seriously pursuing training for the ministry so Shirley changed her major to Religious Education, not the best choice because she should have stayed with journalism, as writing was her favorite thing to do.  They were married in Mount Vernon, Washington in August of 1954 and graduated from CPS the following spring.  After three years at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California,  they spent various amounts of time in different towns in Oregon where Milt was the Methodist Minister and she was known as the “Minister’s Wife”. In June 1967, they moved to Medford with their three young sons, where Milt was one of three ministers of the Methodist Church, and Shirley joined the two organizations she was active in for many years.  One was the Storytelling Guild (a service of the Jackson County Public Library) and the local League of Women Voters where she served on the Board.   She loved both organizations, and worked hard in both.  In 1969, they adopted an African-American girl who was just turning five. In 1970, the Medford League President asked Shirley if she would go to the National LWV Convention in her stead, and Milt told her she should go and he would manage their four small children.  She went, actually said a few words on the convention floor about a proposed study, and - except for the Kent State College shooting by federal troops - had a good time.  Also in 1970, Milt’s church job ended and they decided to stay in Medford to let their children finish school in one place, so he worked for various social service organizations and for a time, at the County, always involved in helping people.  He mentored Vista volunteers for several years. Shirley was hired as a classroom aide in a second grade class, an idea she had always resisted, but watching and assisting the veteran second grade teacher interacting with the students changed her mind. The following summer and the next year she attended Southern Oregon College in Ashland to earn enough credits for her Oregon Teaching Certificate. She was hired as an aide in a North Medford elementary school.  When their children were growing up, they all camped in national or state parks, and in 1976 for the country’s 200th birthday and the oldest son’s high school graduation, they traveled cross-country with their tent trailer to visit Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., a memorable trip that was the last they made with the whole family. In the fall of 1976 Shirley was hired as an elementary teacher and continued for eighteen years.  Wanting to keep her League involvement, Shirley started an evening unit in the Nelson living room.  Two friends who were also teachers lived nearby and walked to the meetings.  Topics were announced in the newspaper and sometimes several people, including some men, came to discuss important issues involving the community.  Milt was sitting in the family room on the other side of a closed door, watching television.  He realized he was missing something and started to attend the meetings.  Milt probably joined the League of Women Voters in 1979 or 1980 because both he and Shirley gathered signatures for the ballot measure petition to make Oregon the first state in the union to Vote by Mail in all elections. One of the first issues they studied together was air quality.  The Rogue Valley has historically grown wonderful fruit crops, and to avoid freezing during the winter, the pear orchards were heated by large metal pot chimneys burning oil that created smog at night. In 1979, for their 25th wedding anniversary, Shirley and Milt went overseas for the first time, where they visited England.  That led to a year as an Exchange Teacher there from 1983-84, and then another year in Australia from 1991-92.  Of course, they explored much of each country, plus traveling to neighboring countries as much as possible during school breaks. When Shirley retired at 61 and Milt at 62, they sold their Medford house (the children were grown and gone) and moved to the coastal town of Port Orford.  They had a new custom-built house overlooking the ocean waiting for them. They became active in LWV of Curry County during their nineteen-year residence, each taking a turn at a two-year presidency and other positions on the board. Shirley was Voter Service Chair for Curry County for several years, arranging candidate forums during major elections, usually held three nights in a row in Port Orford, Gold Beach and Brookings.  Serious candidates participated in all three.  Shirley arranged the meetings and often acted as the Moderator.  Milt often served as Time Keeper.  Each of those towns had monthly unit meetings, and LWV Curry County Board would meet with the units from time to time, alternately.  Shirley led some studies for League members, and both Nelsons usually attended state League conventions and councils.  Shirley served a term on the League of Women Voters of Oregon Board during that time. They had a busy “Retirement 1” as they also volunteered in historic preservation and interpretation at Cape Bianco Lighthouse, the historic 1898 pioneer Victorian Hughes House and the Coast Guard Life-saving Station.  They traveled, visiting or at least driving through all 50 states and most of the Canadian provinces.  They also visited Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, some Caribbean islands, Ecuador, about 25 European countries and the British Isles.  In the Port Orford years, Shirley published several small books, mostly historical. They made some great friends through the League of Women Voters, though losing some along the way at this advanced age.  They enjoy living in an independent senior apartment building “This is Retirement 2” in Florence, and some years Shirley conducts ballot measure forums, LWV-style, in the building or elsewhere in the community.  Shirley and Milt both attended the League’s 100th birthday celebration in Salem right before the doors slammed shut in March 2020 due to COVID-19. Shirley’s message for members newer to the League:  YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  If you care about this country, doing nothing is a mistake.  Attend rallies for people you trust running for office, check things out on Vote411, help get out the vote, and keep studying League issues.  Call it bias, but Shirley believes NOBODY conducts candidate forums as well as the League of Women Voters. A lot happens in 90 years! The pictures above were taken close to the 100th anniversary of League of Women Voters during the COVID pandemic.  Shirley is standing on the back balcony of Florence’s history museum, one of several speakers looking down at a good-sized crowd of people standing in the parking lot below.

For immediate release March 6, 2024 Contacts: Dan Meek     503-293-9099  dan@honest-elections.com Jason Kafoury      202-465-2764  jason@honest-elections.com Kate Titus      202-480-1132  ktitus@commoncause.org Becky Gladstone     541-510-9387  b.gladstone@lwvor.org James Ofsink  503-208-4082  james@portlandforward.org On HB 4024 Campaign Limits Pending at Oregon Legislature Good Government Groups have reached a conceptual agreement with the Legislature and large political spenders to enact historic campaign finance reform. We now wait for a faithful campaign finance reform bill to pass both chambers and be signed by Governor Kotek. The Oregon Legislature has never in its history passed campaign contribution limits (although it has repealed voter-enacted limits several times). The tireless efforts of democracy-focused groups over the last 27 years–working with local and national experts to develop good public policy and collecting over 100,000 signatures on Initiative Petition 9 (2024) from Oregon voters–have created the conditions for the compromise we are reaching today. Statements “Oregon’s largest campaign spenders tried to push a last-minute deal through the Legislature to avoid the stronger limits and disclosure requirements in our Initiative Petition 9. Thanks to years of grassroots work and intense negotiation by Honest Elections Oregon, Common Cause Oregon and other good government groups, we managed to get dozens of fixes to the bill so that it represents an important step toward comprehensive campaign finance reform in Oregon.” - Dan Meek, Honest Elections Oregon “This is not a perfect policy. We think the limits are still too high and the transparency pieces still need a lot of work. But this is a giant leap forward for Oregon’s democracy. We worked hard to create a system that would give everyday Oregonians a chance to have their voices heard against millionaires and billionaires. In the last election cycle Phil Knight donated over five million directly to candidates, he will now be able to donate $3,300 just like everyone else.” - Jason Kafoury, Honest Elections Oregon “We don’t have to sell our democracy to the highest bidder or kowtow to the biggest spenders! When we organize, we build power. Grassroots communities have come together, through groups like Common Cause and Honest Elections Oregon, passing model reforms in Portland – limits, transparency, and public financing – and a 2020 ballot measure to allow state-wide reform. When we stand together, we can take back our democracy.” - Kate Titus, Common Cause Oregon “Oregon is fortunate to have so many activists and organizers working for our publicly supported true campaign finance reform. Opponents, to compete with our popular IP 9, raised a fake “campaign finance reform” measure to defend their power structures on November ballots. We expect unions and businesses would spend tens of millions to persuade Oregon voters to reject IP 9. The League supports transparency and efficiency in government, so we in good faith will support a legislative compromise, for substantive reform, during these last hectic days of session. Oregon deserves better so work must continue. From the League’s national perspective, we will soon be able to say that Oregon is off the list and the United States is down to only 4 states with no political campaign contribution limits.”. - Rebecca Gladstone, League of Women Voters of Oregon “This is just the beginning of a long journey to improve Oregon’s wild west campaign finance system. We look forward to continued efforts over the coming years to fight for lower limits, improved transparency, and public funding.” - James Ofsink, Portland Forward

See the February All-Members newsletter here.

Statements from the League of Women Voters of Oregon From Lisa Bentson, LWVOR Co-President All of us here at the State League share in the grief felt nationwide by the recent and surprise passing of LWVUS President Dr. Turner earlier this week. We just attended a special meeting of League Leaders where over 50 people paid tribute to Dr. Turner. Included in the tributes were League Leaders, LWVUS Staff, and their new Leadership. I was touched by the number of red hearts displayed on many Zoom attendee boxes. I did not have the pleasure to meet Dr. Turner, but nonetheless was inspired and impressed with the words, stories, and experiences that were shared. She leaves behind two children and a new husband whom she only recently married. LWVUS is communicating closely with the family on personal as well as professional aspects of her passing. Please see the important links below. A few are time sensitive such as the virtual funeral information scheduled for this Sunday. Also, please note the email at communications@lwv.org where you can send/share your own photos and stories of Dr. Turner. As we collect comments we will update our blog and forward to LWVUS so they can know we are grieving together with them but also carrying on her legacy. Respectfully submitted by Lisa Bentson, Co-President From Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR Co-President With deep affection, profound sadness, and devotion to our shared mission, here's to you, Dr. Turner. We'll Keep on Keeping On, for you. A few times in our lives we are graced to meet rare beacons- brilliant, poised, pushing to do more, yet circumspect and listening, warm and fun-loving, inspiring and motivating. You have touched us, knowing that across League expanses, your love for what we share will … Make Democracy Work. Let’s treasure memories; we all have our own. We faced COVID-19 and stayed together virtually. Dr. T & Virginia waved for all of us, from the LWV Rose Parade float. We adjourned the LWV Convention to march, together, over to the Denver state house the day the Dobbs decision broke. This is a heartbreaking loss for the League, across the country. From Oregon, condolences all around, especially to those working most closely with Dr. T, the national board and staff, the front lines folks in the marches, elections, and courthouses. To Dr. T’s family- please know that President Turner has influenced history. On behalf of the Board, our Advocates and Voter Service volunteers, our Youth Council, and Oregon members: Thank you. Becky Gladstone, LWVOR Co-President From Celine Ioffe, LWVOR Youth Council President Meeting Dr. Turner during the National Council in 2023 was incredibly inspiring and I was devastated to hear of her passing. Her kindness and genuine care for humanity shone through in every interaction she had, and my experience with her was no different. Speaking with Dr. Turner about the future of the League as well as our shared passion for reproductive justice was not only meaningful but cemented me in the work I was doing. I am sending my condolences to her family and am grateful to have been inspired by Dr. Turner. Thank you, Celine Important Links and Resources Regarding Services All League members are invited to view the LWVUS Livestream of Dr. Turner's funeral services this Sunday beginning at 11 am CT. LWVUS Contact Information Send photos and comments: communications@lwv.org Send donations: https://www.lwv.org/givetribute See inspiring quotes collected by LWVUS: https://www.lwv.org/blog/inspiration-late-lwv-president-dr-deborah-ann-turner Read Dr. Turner's obituary: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/obituaries/piow0707800 In closing, we share this moving video of Dr. Turner singing a song she and others sang on the Selma March. She was there as a little girl.

See the latest Voter Newsletter - Winter 2024.

By Aram Peterson, Solution Architect / Advisor Aram presented an OLIS tutorial at Legislative Process Day on Nov. 7, 2023 and offered an extensive Q&A afterward. He followed up after the event with the extended explanation below. Dive into OLIS with an expert! Access OLIS (Oregon Legislative Information Solutions) here. The question was, “Where can I see what bills the governor has signed?” My first answer was the Senate Journals, and House Journals listed on the Secretary of the Senate’s site, or the Chief Clerk’s site, (links located under the Senate or House menu on the main public website).  That answer was correct, but as I mentioned these may not be published until sometime after session.  They have a section in those documents for “House Measures Signed by Governor” or “Senate Measures Signed by Governor”. However, there is a daily “Joint Status Report” publication that is automatically re-generated daily during session that also lists all Measures signed by the governor. To get to this publication, click on the More menu, then expand the Reports/Documents section, and look for the “Daily and Cumulative Session Publications”. In the page that loads, the top should be a section for Cumulative Session publications, and the one you’ll want is the “Joint Status Report”.  In some cases, if this publication gets too big, there may be a separate one for the House & Senate, but in any case, you’re looking for the Status Report.  (This publication is only available in a “Regular” session, during an interim it’s not generated.)  Click to open the PDF. Inside the PDF, the page number is going to be different each time, but just search in the PDF for the key phrase “SENATE MEASURES SIGNED BY GOVERNOR”, or “HOUSE MEASURES SIGNED BY GOVERNOR”.  There will be a table with all the measures signed up until that point. I believe it will also list in another nearby section any bills vetoed or line item vetoed (if there are any). You can find this same publication for prior sessions.  It’s generally refreshed daily until a couple months after session and all signings are input.  So, to get it for a prior session use the Session Menu to choose the session you want, and then follow the instructions above, More Menu, expand reports, etc. There are a variety of other sources of information on the More menu, and I would encourage anyone to just browse around. An additional page to highlight is the “New and Updated Measure List”.  This page will list all measures that have had any new versions published during the day.  In other words, all newly Introduced bills, and any bills amended, or engrossed will appear on this list.  Because the push of the new bill text content is generally done around 6 PM, during normal business hours you’ll want to generally click the arrow to go back to the prior day. This page won’t show much except during session, but during session it’s a great page to check daily for anything new.  You can click the link to open the PDF of whatever is “new” right from the list. Another item under the More menu that you may find interesting is “Floor Letters”.  These are the letters that members have requested their Desks office to leave on the floor desk for their fellow members.  The submitted date should be the day it was left on the desk. This page lists all floor letters submitted by any members for that session.  Floor letters are also shown on the Bill Overview page (if they are related to a specific bill), but this page on the More menu will list all of them, regardless of if they are bill related or not. I wanted to mention one additional thing regarding the e-subscribe.  There is a link on the Bill Overview page for each bill to subscribe, BUT as I indicated that is only active during session.  There is also an e-subscribe link in the lower left corner in OLIS, that should be listed no matter which page you’re on.  This will take you to the page on the public website, where you can sign up at any time. We didn’t manage to get to the Committees menu, but it works similar to the other things we covered.  You can expand the Type sections (Senate/House/Joint, etc.) and click on the committee you want to view.  And then browse through all the info related to that committee.  On the right side is a list of all meetings scheduled for that committee, you can click the meeting date, and then will see all the details about that meeting.  For session committees (only session committees can hear actual measures) you can expand the date, (little blue arrow to the left of the date) and it will show all the measures scheduled for that meeting, click on the measure for more detailed info.  The little play icon will play the recorded video for that meeting.  If you don’t see the blue arrow, that means there were no actual measures on the agenda.

See the January All-Members newsletter here.

League observers at the COP24 conference in 2018. The annual UN Climate Conference, COP28, was held from 30 November until 12 December 2023 at Expo City, Dubai. League representatives attended again this year (in-person and virtually) as observers for the League of Women Voters of the U.S. See daily reports below. 12/13: COP28 Day 14 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Many of you have awakened to the news that - yes - COP28 finally did adopt, by consensus, a text on what is known as the Global Stocktake and how to be more ambitious on the way forward into the future. As is the case with multilateral negotiations, no one was completely happy with the text but as in the LWV, they could live with it. Samoa, speaking for the small islands, suggested they might not have agreed with the text if they had been in the room - this is a little disconcerting. Antigua and Barbados, while agreeing to the text, emphasized that financing is easy to obtain for fossil fuel projects, including LNG-type systems, but financing for renewables is quite difficult. We need to do better. The African Group emphasized the need to approve the Global Goal for Adaptation in the coming COP in 2024. They emphasized the need for adaptation funding, rather than mitigation funding which is long overdue. The text of the final GST agreement can be found here  Look for Agenda item 4, right side has a download link - you need to check the box for English for it to download. Below are extracts relating to more ambitious actions to address emissions. 28. Further recognizes the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5 °C pathways and calls on Parties to contribute to the following global efforts, in a nationally determined manner, taking into account the Paris Agreement and their different national circumstances, pathways and approaches: (a) Tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030; (b) Accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power; (c) Accelerating efforts globally towards net zero emission energy systems, utilizing zero- and low-carbon fuels well before or by around mid-century; (d) Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science; (e) Accelerating zero- and low-emission technologies, including, inter alia, renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies such as carbon capture and utilization and storage, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, and low-carbon hydrogen production; (f) Accelerating and substantially reducing non-carbon-dioxide emissions globally, including in particular methane emissions by 2030; (g) Accelerating the reduction of emissions from road transport on a range of pathways, including through the development of infrastructure and rapid deployment of zero-and low-emission vehicles; (h) Phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that do not address energy poverty or just transitions, as soon as possible; 29. Recognizes that transitional fuels can play a role in facilitating the energy transition while ensuring energy security; The COP under the Paris Agreement, also did not approve the text to fully operationalize the carbon market (Article 6). Several groups worried that the market did not have strong enough constraints and references to human rights — including the EU, Mexico, and the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (IALAC). 12/11 and 12/12: COP28 Day 12 & 13 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Things have not gone to plan and COP28 is still going on, although not in public and only in backrooms. Most of my on-the-ground sources have left and only a few observers are left to encourage Parties to do the right thing. Saudi Arabia does not want the words “Fossil Fuels” to be anywhere in the outcome text. The African Countries seem to think that phasing out fossil fuels will leave their countries in a developing state and will never be up to the Sustainable Development Goals the UN has set for the world. The EU thinks that the Carbon Market Rules will allow too much wiggle room. The US is somewhere in the middle, with John Kerry desperately not wanting the negotiations on the closing language to collapse. And the small island states just want to have their countries not get drowned. It is heartbreaking to hear the representatives speak about these small vulnerable countries. Another petrol state will host COP29 in 2024 - Azerbaijan. And in 2025, Belem, Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon will be the host. I want to be optimistic, but it is extremely hard.  If and when something else comes out of COP28, I will update you all. 12/9 and 12/10: COP28 Day 10 & 11 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Negotiations on the global stocktake, Article 6 (markets), and adaptation funding have crawled to a stop (almost). The UAE COP presidency held a “Majlis” on Day 11 to try to find a compromise on various topics. The heads of delegations (John Kerry for the US) sat in a circle (on chairs) and shared their views. While many countries said they were looking for compromises and willing to work with others - several countries took hard positions … such as “no language on phasing out fossil fuels”, vs. “must phase out fossil fuels”. Oil-rich countries on one side, and Pacific Island countries on the other. The word “balance” is a favorite for many countries. And financing is always at the center of all the negotiations. I listened to a talk about the global ocean observation system. Collecting these measurements taken from buoys floating around the ocean, satellite systems, and ships cost 100s of millions of dollars and needs new funding every 5 to 10 years. As an oceanographer who has used and collected such data, I know the value of these data. But even the presenters in these talks mentioned that they needed more money to keep taking the measurements to produce a long time series. As I listened, I pondered whether the dollars spent on collecting data could be spent to fund mitigation efforts in developing countries.  Is there an end point where we’ve collected enough data to understand the earth’s warming signal? Also, listening to various voices around COP, there is a definite cry for funding adaptation efforts even at the risk of having less funds to address mitigation. This is worrisome, but it is a developed world concern, rather than from the developing world. 12/7: COP28 Day 8 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Baku looks like the place for COP29 in 2024. Troubling again, both on a personal level and an environmental level. Bolivia is quite upset about negotiations on what is referred to as Article 6 - the market mechanisms/non-market mechanisms for reducing global emissions. Bolivia and its “Like Minded Developing Countries or LMDCs” favors non-market mechanisms, rather than market mechanisms to reduce emissions. Such things include putting a price on carbon, and deforestation efforts. The LMDCs insisted that if they didn’t get the text they favored into one of the sections of Article 6, they would not support any of Article 6. Most of the language in article 6 was agreed to in previous COPs and it is almost operational. But there are lots of hangups of specific language related to a standard way to submit, electronically, the information about a credit. Until the parties agree to this, the mechanism at the heart of COP, can’t be activated. Elsewhere, negotiations on the Global Stocktake decision language were taken up at the ministerial level (or political level). The divergent views still exist and the process forward seems unclear to me. Why is this important? The decision, if agreed to, would make a statement on how well the world is doing in addressing climate and how we can be more ambitious, including with funding, to address adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage.  This includes how to leverage financing to do the job. 12/5: COP28 Day 6 Observations from Kim Cameron, In Dubai Energy, Industry, and Just Transition are the theme of the day. In honor of the day, I went to a talk entitled: Accelerating the elimination of methane emissions and the decarbonization of oil and gas. What did I learn? Well - number 1. Methane is hard to detect, but the collective “we” are getting better at detecting the sources. And, now, thanks to Climate TRACE, we should have no problem detecting the sources (yes!!!!). However, developing countries need technological support to eliminate methane emissions. Goal: Zero methane emissions by 2030. 50 national oil companies (NOCs) and independent oil companies (IOCs), representing more than 40% of global oil production have signed the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC): ambitious and actionable targets that support the aims of the Paris Agreement. The Near Zero Methane Action Agenda aims to support the O&G industry in achieving near-zero methane emissions by 2030 by unlocking financing mechanisms and technical solutions. Just to put this in perspective: 28,000 wells in the US need to be addressed (honestly, this does not seem like an astronomical number to deal with, but I’m sure I am underestimating the amount of work required to fix these wells). We need to eliminate valves that allow methane to leak, capture methane from the stack and redirect it into storage in the ground, and electrify compressors (there is a supply chain issue here) which requires strengthening the grid. Money is flowing into this sector, so maybe we can get this done. Can we get this done - yes. Will companies decide this is where they should invest their money? That is a different question. The answer to that question lies in the next question - will it save them money (or better yet, make them money)? Because that seems to be the true driver of change. After that fairly depressing (but supposed to be uplifting talk) I went to one of the Global Climate Action talks: Taking Stock of Climate Action: Energy and Industry: Accelerating Systems Transformations. Here we heard from Nicola Davidson, VP of Sustainability for ArcelorMittal (a global steel and mining company with 160K employees, all of whom are working hard to decarbonize steel), Concepcion Boo Arias, director of global partnerships and ESG, public and regulatory affairs at Maersk (Maersk moves cargo around the world by air, land, and sea). Some major points of interest: Maersk needs to make sure that the ships they use are made of the highest quality of steel (which is conveniently also better for the environment). They have a program to take ships out of commission after some time (25 years I believe) and recycle them. Many vessels are coming up for recycling over the next few years and their goal is to recycle those sustainably and replace them with more efficient systems. A great message, but no real change to their system (one would not know that the world is on the edge of a catastrophe). Steel standards are an issue. There are different ways to make steel and standards have been lacking. Steel standards were announced at COP a couple of days ago: https://www.responsiblesteel.org/news/steel-standard-principles-launch-at-cop28/ This is a major step forward to defining what is low carbon steel, near zero carbon steel, etc. Why do we care? Well, 5% of carbon emissions come from steel! Standards allow a life cycle analysis to be accurate and promote a circular economy. Before I end today’s blog, I do want to touch on a couple of other talks I went to. Electrifying Cooking: a just journey towards net-zero. 2.3 billion people across Africa and Asia use biomass for cooking. This is a problem: it takes time (an average of 4 hours) to find wood and cook the meals, women’s health is affected by the air pollution associated with cooking over an open fire in an enclosed space and finally, lost productivity for women. The lack of progress is estimated to cost $2.4 trillion each year according to the World Bank. So, the Global Electric Cooking Coalition was launched today to convert Africa and Asia’s kitchen to a new type of fuel. A few things to unpack here. One is the fuel transition: pellet biomass, liquid natural gas, and coal primarily. What happened to solar and wind? Good question, and I don’t know the answer, but I do know that this initiative is supported by the UAE who are financing $4.5 billion to unlock Africa’s clean energy initiative (which they plan to do with LNG). Second, the reason: this transition is not taking place because it is the right way to empower women - it is taking place because the private sector has finally been convinced that this is an economic problem. Four hours of cooking could become four hours of low-paying work for women outside the home. Will this empower women? The jury is out. Third, I’ve talked to several people who are involved in the initiatives to convert cooking and it’s not working - women don’t want to stop cooking over a flame. The food tastes different, the recipes are different, and using a pressure cooker is just not the same as letting a stew cook over an open fire for hours. No surprise here - we have the same issues in the US. No one wants to give up their gas stoves even if they are told that gas in the house is a serious hazard to their health. A final sad note: almost no one was in the large auditorium where this session was taking place. Lots more happened today, but this is all I have time for. 12/4: COP28 Day 5 Observations from Susana Hancock, In Dubai OK, wow! Day 5 and still alive (I think? not sure when I last slept!!). I didn't update yesterday because I didn't finish until 3:30 am, BUT I did manage a social media deluge. I've been posting a fair bit on Instagram throughout the day each day anyway in addition to my little daily minute wrap-ups I've been sharing here. One post, my boss told me to put on LinkedIn and it blew up--several thousand notifications by the time I had breakfast. Yooowwwwww. My Instagram is instagram.com/susanahancock_ if you want the inside look throughout! Here's a little ditty I made yesterday wrapping up the first four days with what's ahead of us.... https://www.instagram.com/p/C0buKjtrYF8/ Let's just say A LOT!!! I've been arriving early to the venue--not just because it avoids the epic queue to get through security in the morning but also because that's when we are starting science coordination for the negotiations. I'm currently working on a cryosphere-wide project (poles, glaciated regions, and now also including mountainous parts of Earth), which successfully got the cryosphere into the final text at COP27 in Sharm last year, and we're getting more countries to sign on this year. Initial indication from UN Secretary General António Guterres is that we have permission to cause "good trouble" on Friday during negotiations. Still finalizing permissions, but stay tuned!! Yesterday after my morning dose of science and before the afternoon/evening fill, I spent briefly with Candice in a session on global health. And then I ran to Al Gore's presentation on Climate TRACE. This was awesome, though as an avid consumer of TRACE, I'm biased. TRACE uses remote sensing, satellite data, etc. to secure real-time emissions, thereby preventing companies from underreporting or selling emissions to get away with not cutting. I started working with TRACE nearly two years ago, around the time it launched, just ahead of COP26 and have since launched the first two public-facing apps in the world using the data. I'm happy to talk about this data set if anyone is keen, it really is an incredible resource! Today's highlights included more science and negotiations and then an incredible catch up with Dr Svitlana Krakovska, who seems to hold the Ukrainian science and climate world together. She is also a polar scientist, but moreover, she's an incredible human being, and I love my chances to visit with her at every and any opportunity. We had very emotional discussions on the impacts of science on war and vice versa. This was both at the structural level and also at the very personal. The Ukrainian pavilion is back this year for the second year running and the exhibits are powerful. My other big highlight for the day was speaking with the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Lancet. The CVF is one of my partners for my big public health grant starting in January. We had some terrific talks about using the European tribunal system as well as the Universal Periodic Review--a process through which all UN member states can interrogate the others regarding human rights. Additionally, coalitions of nation states have already expressed interest in joining my project, even though it doesn't kick off until later in the winter. Luckily, the climate crisis is a human rights issue so the door is open! 12/3: COP28 Day 4 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Here’s the link to many of the webcasts of the side events. Many events have been recorded and available for the general public outside of registered participants to view. Click away! I virtually attended an update session on the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4. This is the carbon trading mechanism article. Operationalizing the market is still some ways off, maybe by 2025. From what was said, it should be much better/fairer than the Kyoto Carbon market, which by almost everyone’s views, was a failure. One side event today was called “Human Rights at 75." Given that LWVUS Advocacy chair at the time, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the drafting committee, it is good to know that the declaration has stood the test of time. The Global StockTake Negotiations on a decision text has a long way to go. As they say in diplomatic speak “there are many rich views” discussed (controversial/differing views? ). The differences today were in the area of international cooperation, guidance into the future, and loss and damage. Many countries want to include language related to human rights, but some countries, such as Iran, push back on including such language. The US suggested some language related to sea level rise and how a country’s status and maritime economic zone should not change, even if part of it disappears - interesting. Some countries made the point that the language would need to be consistent with the UN’s Law of the Sea language. There are so many overlaps with many other international agreements that it must be hard for the diplomats to keep things consistent. Although I’m only a virtual participant this year, I did receive a note from the UNFCCC saying that they had to prohibit observer actions between 1:30pm and 3pm because it was too hot and they were worried about people’s safety. Don’t know if something happened to make this new rule or not. Observations from Candice Owley, In Dubai Today was the first-ever Health Day at COP. The effort was led in large part by WHO to let the world know that the climate crisis is the greatest health threat in the world. The healthcare workers on the front line were the first to sound the alarm about the deadly effect of climate change. Throughout the day there were many health-connected events and the day ended with the first-ever convening of over 100 global health ministers. To bring attention to the health crisis, the COP issued a Declaration on climate and health. The declaration signed by 123 countries expressed grave concern about the negative impacts of climate change on health and stressed the urgent need to strengthen health systems given lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic which strained all health systems and widened inequities. The declaration concluded with the commitment to convene regularly and to review progress at future COP meetings and other WHO and global meetings. Today was the first-ever Health Day at COP. The effort was led in large part by WHO to let the world know that the climate crisis is the greatest health threat in the world. The messages of yesterday were reiterated: climate change is killing us, urgent action is needed, health is the human face of the climate crisis, and healthcare leaders and providers have an ethical responsibility and public trust to be the ones that make this crisis real to policymakers and the general public. This urgent call to action included the role of civil society to also take the lead in educating the public about the clear and present danger of climate change. One speaker suggested we measure progress on the climate crisis not only by emissions reduced but by how many lives were saved or lost by our actions each year. It would be a powerful way to put people at the center of the discussions. I can’t help but reflect that while today we celebrate the fact that finally COP put health front and center at this year's meeting the reason is that we failed to understand how fast climate change would become life-threatening. In many ways today is a sign of our failure to act. We’ve allowed the situation to get so bad that we can no longer turn away or bury our heads in the sand as we could for the last 27 COPs. My other reflection is that I believe the League can play a role in this crisis by educating our members and our communities about the life-threatening effects of climate change. Lives are being lost every day and we all have a part to play in this fight for the future of mankind and of the planet. 12/2: COP28 Day 3 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually Another day of negotiations and side events. It started with various High-Level panels on health initiatives. Finally, COP28 is centering day 4 as “Health Day”. And —money, money, money … There were negotiators asking for text to be added to various documents requesting money be set aside for technology and capacity training, and ministers gave statements committing money to various things, such as health issues. While dollar commitments were made, money flowing into various funds is not guaranteed. This especially is the case with the US’s commitments and the fact that Congress has to approve the funds (not likely this year or in 2024). The reality is how far the US, as one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, can go to reach its NDC if we don’t have a Congress and Executive branch to make it happen. Observations from Candice Owley, In Dubai Today began again with a lot of confusion and delays as a result of restrictions related to so many heads of state attending but the good news is they will all be gone by tomorrow and then negotiators will get down to business. Still, I think it is important to say that the presence of so many county leaders sends a message to the world that the climate crisis is real and we must take action now. Once again I spent most of my time on health. I was fortunate to receive one of the very few tickets to a high-level leader’s session on Putting Health at the Center of the Climate agenda. The session began with the COP 28 President, Sultan al-Jaber, stating that we do not need any more evidence, that climate change is real and it is deadly. He said we know that at least 7 million people a year die from air pollution alone. He announced that tomorrow at least 123 national Health Ministers will be at COP to announce the endorsement of a declaration on health. He again stressed that this is the first COP to put Health at the center of the program. He also said that we need to develop tangible results and not just words on a paper. That the health agenda is the most powerful way to make climate change real and that Climate change is the single biggest health threat to humanity. The President was followed by Dr. Tedras the head of the World Health Organization. Dr. Tedras said that health care can be a game changer in the fight for action on the climate crisis. He also called out fossil fuel production as environmental vandalism. Speaking truth to power. He reminded us that Health is the human face of climate change. Their remarks were followed by a panel which included the head of Doctors Without Borders. Members of the panel shared many disturbing facts such as the major increase in malaria and other mosquito-born diseases and the emergence of new pathogens. It was enough to scare the pants off of anyone. Tomorrow will be the meeting of the Health Ministers and the pledge of support for the new health declaration plus an announcement about significant funds debated the health issues. I was fortunate to also meet a group of nurses from the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment who asked after Connie and were sorry to hear she wasn’t present in person this year. In closing, I also learned where to get bandaids and replacements for lost metro cards and was glad I brought COVID test kits with me as there was an outbreak in the human rights work group. Observations from Susana Hancock, In Dubai Hello all from Day 3! I gotta say: the air quality here is getting to me. It was 156 this morning when I woke up, and quickly I lost decent sight of the world's largest gas power generator out my window--just one short metro hop down the line but it poked through the smog. I've had migraines that develop when I'm outside for too long. I've taken to wearing a mask and am doing what I can with saline washes, which I do think helps a bit. This morning I started off on sessions about carbon absorption with the Prince of Monaco Foundation. This was great for me, because I saw Prince Albert II of Monaco over coffee and the head of his foundation. I've been working with Prince Albert and his team to develop his Polar Initiative, which he is now planning to steer toward geopolitics and science diplomacy. I followed this with a quick hello to John Kerry, who seems significantly better than earlier this month when he and I were amongst four Americans President Emmanuel Macron brought to France for pre-COP negotiations with the One Paris Summit. I was able to then catch the second half of Mini's session on the intersection of the climate crisis and public health where I met up with Kim. Unspoken in her session, this panel highlighted a gross frustration of mine--the dominance of the male patriarchy in climate discussions. Why is it that women are left to deal with "women's problems" when really, the education of girls, eg, is a societal problem? Why is it girls' job to fight for their own education? Where are the men speaking up? I tried to accompany Kim to the French Pavilion but after taking my seat, I got called to the UNFCCC's Global Innovation Hub for a talk with Future Earth and the Club of Rome. This session was both phenomenal and terrifying. We looked at the stats of the conference, and as an expert for the IPCC's last assessment report, the results were scary. Did you know that only half of one percent of attendees here are scientists?? Did you know that the leaders of this conference are not even using the most recent (2021--some of which is already outdated) IPCC research??? After a brief moment of recovery (in the form of coffee--given to me from a single use Keurig--I made my way to the Cryosphere Pavilion for a talk relating to some of my NGO's work on modeling sea level rise from Greenland and Antarctica and the implications for small island states (physics isn't their friend...). Here's a little mental math for you - that global loss and damages fund? The amount pledged thus far totals 0.006% of what some of the same donors spent on fossil fuel subsidies last year! Here's a little mental math for you - that global loss and damages fund? The amount pledged thus far totals 0.006% of what some of the same donors spent on fossil fuel subsidies last year! I'm not sure why no one else has done that math, but that spurred me to write an article that should be appearing in the US news in the next day or so. In better news, Colombia became the tenth country to sign onto the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative today!! What's exciting is that Colombia is the first non-small island state. I testified last August to get Portland, Maine to sign on, after giving a talk at COP27 with the founder of the Fossil Fuel Treaty, so this is a baby I follow. Tomorrow, I head very early to take part in a small science negotiation for the draft text of the COP outcomes, and then it's likely a relatively relaxed day to explore and learn new things! Here's a little tour through Michael Pinsky's Pollution Pod art installation. Pretty powerful and reinforces my privilege to live in a safe-air area!! 12/1: COP28 Day 2 Observations from Candice Owley, In Dubai It has been an interesting, exhausting, and often confusing experience for me as a first-timer at COP. As an observer, I am not able to participate in any negotiations so I decided to find ways I could have influence and also increase my knowledge of the issues. I decided to focus on labor and human rights and on the critical issue of the impact of climate change on heath. Each day I attend a briefing by the Trade Union group and also one by there Human rights Working Group. Both of these daily briefings have been extremely helpful. At the meeting I learned of the importance of urging our US representatives to push for inclusion of both labor and human rights during all stages of the negotiations. We were told that that many countries do not want to even acknowledge the impact on workers and the human rights issues that are linked to climate change. There was much reporting about the adoption on Day 1 of an agreement to fund the damages from climate change. The activists groups (labor, women, youth, etc) while supportive of the action they all reported there were disappointed because there were many flaws with the language but efforts now need to turn to influencing who has power to make decisions about the funds including how it is distributed and who is at the table for the next stage - implementation. So more work to be done. Also much criticism of the promise of a very low financial contribution from the US compared to other big counties. The other major focus of my time has been on health. For the first time in COP history there will be a Health Day. On that day the largest number of Ministries of Health from around the world will be here to call attention to the critical link between climate change and health problems. I will report more on this issue after Health Day which is December 3rd. Speaking of health, there was a great presentation centered on the recently adopted UN declaration affirming the human right to a health which links this right to climate change. What is clear is that the right to a healthy environment is a basic and fundamental human right. All over the world activists are using this concept and bring and winning law suits to stop policies that would be damaging or have been damaging to peoples health. I’m looking forward to the even greater focus on health in the next few days. Observations from Susana Hancock, In Dubai Yesterday's historic passing of Loss and Damage continues to ruminate in my head. YES, it was incredible to get passed--but it honestly weighs on me heavily and uneasily. I'm really worried that L&D is being framed as the success of this COP. Why is that concerning? First, the current pledges are woefully insufficient, and I'm honestly sick of pledges--they are never paid!! As of last year, the US had paid 5% of its pledges to climate funding and yet was still signing for more. Second, though, is that the focus on L&D has been on adaptation rather than mitigation. Now, we need adaptation, but we also need mitigation. This ties into my bigger concern that the closing documents are going to leave out the phaseout of fossil fuels, stating rather that we need to bring in interventions (carbon capture, eg), enabling us de facto to continue to develop the fossil fuel industry. By passing L&D, the conference can argue that we've already had a major win--even though it's a scratch at the surface for what needs to happen for L&D--especially as fossil fuels continue to flourish. By passing Loss and Damage, the conference can argue that we've already had a major win--even though it's a scratch at the surface for what needs to happen for L&D--especially as fossil fuels continue to flourish. Today was the first day of the Global Leaders' Summit, so we got to hear from everyone from PM Narendra Modi to King Charles. This continues tomorrow after which pressure will escalate for some walking behind the talking. In the morning, I attended a session on the intersection of the climate crisis and public health, especially concerning vector-borne diseases, and then had several conversations on this topic. I've just received a multimillion dollar grant to link polar-driven planetary tipping points to global health, so this has been an area developing for me quite a bit. I also spent a fair amount of time at the Ocean Pavilion, where I networked, discussed collaborations and attended sessions on Arctic pollution and plastics. I'm working on trying to develop a democracy project for COP29, so I began some inroads today, which will continue over the coming days. The air pollution is getting to me a bit. I'm not the only one-- people have been getting nose bleeds and walking around with towels in their nostrils! 11/30: COP28 Day 1 Observations from Robin Tokmakian, Virtually After a slow start — starting at midday rather than at 9 AM, COP28 Day 1 ended on a somewhat positive note. The parties agreed to initiate a Loss and Damage fund, temporarily hosted by the World Bank but run by an independent board (membership to be determined). This is the first year the parties have agreed to something on day 1 of a COP. From what I understand, the US negotiator who was part of the Loss and Damage transition committee was instrumental in formulating a compromise. But before all of this happened, a small sideshow. Let me explain. At the start of each COP, the agenda contains some items which I would call business items, such as voting on the next COP chair, setting up rules, etc. One of the items is to approve the list of NGOs that have applied to be observers in the past year. This year the list included 600 or so organizations from around the world, bringing the total to somewhere in the 1000s. Among the organizations were George Soros’ OpenSociety and a US-based organization, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). After the item was approved, Russia asked for the floor and complained that these 2 organizations were fronts for US state-funded political activity (not true) and admitted such organizations only politicized the process - and such organizations shouldn’t be allowed to participate in the future. A few minutes later, the US Delegate, John Kerry, asked for the floor and, sounding somewhat annoyed, stated that civil society organizations should not be prohibited from participating. Somewhere, both these statements will be a part of the official COP28 record. Also admitted as an approved NGO was the American Petroleum Institute — a surprise, because I would have assumed they'd have asked to participate years ago!

See the December All-Members Newsletter here.

CLIMATE LEGISLATION IS OUR TOP ISSUE Date: February 21, 2020 To: All League Members and Oregonians From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President Julie Chapman and Claudia Keith, Climate Portfolio WE NEED SUPPORTERS IN THE CAPITOL DAILY THESE NEXT TWO WEEKS We want to be in the halls, in the House and Senate chambers, and in our legislators’ offices – making sure they know how important it is to pass climate legislation in 2020. The Oregon Greenhouse Gas Initiative (SB 1530 and HB 4167 – identical bills) is broadly supported throughout the state. Thousands have submitted testimony and published opinion pieces, from public health providers, to your League. We recognize the urgency to address this Climate Crisis. If you have legislators who might walkout over the climate bill, please contact them immediately to let them know how important it is to you that they remain to vote. Find Your Legislators Here. If you are uncertain of their stand on the Oregon Greenhouse Gas Initiative, thank them for supporting this thoughtful approach to reducing our emissions. PLEASE JOIN US DURING THE NEXT WEEKS IN SALEM! WE WILL MAKE SURE LEGISLATORS KNOW WE ARE COUNTING ON THEM TO VOTE! Because schedules shift daily (even hourly now!), we encourage you to sign up for “Get Involved” updates from Renew Oregon, for the most up-to-date information on what is happening in the capitol. We rely on Renew Oregon, the large coalition LWVOR works with on climate legislation.

See the November All-Members Newsletter here.