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Climate Emergency

Legislative Report - Week of 2/23

Climate Emergency Team

 

Coordinator: Claudia Keith​

  • Coordinator: Claudia Keith

  • Efficient and Resilient Buildings: vacant

  • Energy Policy: Claudia Keith

  • Environmental Justice: vacant

  • Natural Climate Solution 

  • Forestry: Josie Koehne 

  • Agriculture: vacant

  • Community Resilience & Emergency Management: see Governance LR: Rebecca Gladstone 

  • Transportation: see NR LR 

  • Joint Ways and Means - Budgets, Lawsuits, Green/Public Banking,

  • Divestment/ESG: Claudia Keith

 

Find additional Climate Change Advocacy volunteers in Natural Resources

Please see Climate Emergency Overview here.

Jump to a topic:


Climate Emergency Big Picture Update


Oregon Water Issues/ Fire Risk/Drought Caused by Climate Change  


As of mid-February 2026, Oregon's statewide snowpack is at its lowest level on record for this time of year, driven by a combination of extreme warmth and low precipitation. The snow water equivalent (SWE) is in the zero percentile, meaning it is the worst on record since consistent measurements began in the early 1980s.  Refer to : Oregon’s record low snowpack is not likely to recover, scientists say - OPB



Please contact your legislators, asking them to support SB 1541 A and SB 1526A. Leadership and JWM committee must move these bills to the floor for a vote this session. Oregon has an opportunity to join other states, modeling critical climate fiscal legislation.

 

SB 1541A - Make Polluters Pay  


Status


New SMS, Senate Energy and Environment, PH 2/5 and work session 2/10, -2 amendment, moved to Joint Ways and Means (JWM). LWVOR submitted testimony.  Creates the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program to assess financial impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and recover costs from responsible entities. Multiple state agencies are involved including, Department of Land Conservation and Development, DLCD, Department of Environmental Quality, DEQ, Oregon Health Authority, OHA, and Land Conservation and Development Commission. LCDC, the oversight body is Environmental Quality Commission (EQC).  The League has joined the Make Polluters Pay Campaign. This climate legislation is a national effort covered today by the New York Times, reporting that a number of other states are in the process of passing and/or implementing similar legislation.


What to say 


Oregon’s Climate Resilience Superfund bill requires the world’s largest fossil fuel companies to pay their fair share for climate-related disasters and to fund solutions that prepare Oregon communities for future impacts. Importantly, funds will be prioritized for wildfire preparedness and recovery and climate resilience projects, such as:


  • Preparing homes, buildings, powerlines, and more to be wildfire safe;

  • Sustainable, preventative work such as controlled burns to reduce wildfire risk;

  • More energy-efficient cooling and home weatherization to protect us from extreme  heat and smoke, while lowering utility bills;

  • Rebuilding better and more resilient after major floods or wildfires;

  • Combating water shortages with more efficient irrigation equipment for Oregon farmers.


SB 1526A - FORGE: Fund for Oregon Resilience, Growth, and Energy


Status


New SMS, ’, work session was 2/9, Senate Energy and Environment (SEE) moved the bill to JWM, League testimony. Creates financing tools, including a revolving loan fund, to provide more affordable, accessible long-term financing for clean energy and resilience infrastructure projects in Oregon. This is modeled on a number of other states’ legislation, some as "green" banking nonprofits.



What to say


SB 1526 would create a new tool to provide more affordable, accessible long-term financing for projects that strengthen Oregon’s clean energy and resilience infrastructure. 


The bill responds to the need for alternate funding sources to enable the state to continue vital investments in clean energy and resilience.

 

SB 1526 offers Oregon a clear and timely solution. By establishing the Fund for Oregon Resilience, Growth, and Energy, this bill would help fill critical financing gaps left by federal rollbacks, leverage public dollars to attract private capital, accelerate clean energy, resilience, and housing projects statewide, and protect affordability while creating family-wage jobs.


Other Bills the League is following: 


  • HB 4046A Nuclear Study Bill, House Climate, Energy, and Environment (HCEE), work session 2/12, moved to JWM unanimously as amended. New SMS, directs the Oregon Department of Energy, subject to the availability of funding, to conduct a study on nuclear energy, including advanced nuclear reactors. The -2 amendment, a substantial rewrite of the original bill negotiated with opponents, seemed to satisfy committee members that the study could be unbiased as to nuclear energy issues. 


  • HB 4031A: new SMS, first reading in Senate 2/19, House passed on 2/12. Sen Judiciary PH 2/23 and WS 2/25. Exempts a renewable energy facility from needing a site certificate from the Energy Facility Siting Council if the facility qualifies for certain federal renewable energy tax credits and construction is scheduled to begin on or before December 31, 2028.


  • HB 1597 A SEE PH 2/4, WKS was 2/16. Sen chamber vote 2/23. Makes a power provider disclose the costs to store the waste made from making any electric power. New SMS



Bills that died in Policy Committee


  • SB 1582, Community-Based Power: Distributed Power Plants, SEE 


Senate Energy and Environment  


The committee declined to move  SB 1588 (Upgrade and Save), ostensibly out of concern about adding to the burdens of PUC and the regulated utilities. Sen. Golden expressed regret that SB 1588 would not move forward, saying the goal was to start addressing the significant challenge of developing new energy while keeping utility bills affordable for Oregonians. Capturing energy wasted by many thousands of energy-inefficient buildings would allow us to begin meeting that challenge. This will remain a “much more than trivial problem” moving forward.


The committee voted unanimously to move SB 1525-3 to the Senate floor with prior referral to Joint W&M. It would establish the Blue Economy Task Force to study and report on economic development plans or strategies for the “blue” (coastal) economy. As amended, the bill would specify additional members of the task force including labor and tribal representatives. The bill would also authorize the Oregon Ocean Science Trust to create a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) entity to serve as a dedicated fund-raising arm of the trust. Note: The House has passed HB 4097, scheduled for public hearing in Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire on 2/17, which simply would authorize creation of the tax-exempt entity. See also Natural Resources: Coastal Issues.


The committee voted 4-1 (Robinson) to move SB 1597-1 to the Senate floor with a do pass recommendation. As amended, it would require an electric utility (defined as a public utility, PUD, MUD, or co-op) to disclose to its customers the costs of storing the waste produced by a nuclear power facility. Sen. Brock Smith proposed an amendment that would have replaced the bill with one exempting small modular reactors from the prohibition on siting a nuclear power plant in Oregon unless authorized by a statewide general election, but the committee declined to entertain it.


Most of the meeting was devoted to a public hearing on HB 4102. As introduced and passed unanimously by the House, it would modify DEQ's authority to hire third-party contractors to expedite environmental permitting. LWVOR opposed the introduced bill in written testimony, as did multiple environmental organizations, concerned about the use of outside contractors to perform important permitting work, especially if those contractors are paid by the regulated businesses. Senate E&E heard testimony on the proposed -1 amendment, which essentially would replace the House-passed bill in an effort to ward off environmental opposition and win support from labor. Major provisions of the amendment would (1) require 3rd-party vendors to disclose potential conflicts of interest; (2) require permit applicants to report their history of compliance with environmental rules; and (3) specify labor standards relative to the employment of skilled Oregon workers on permitted construction projects. Labor groups that were neutral on the base bill strongly supported the amended bill, and some environmental witnesses said they could live with the -1. Much of the discussion was technical, centering on whether the bill's new language duplicates that of DEQ's existing contractual rules. Of interest, an Intel representative stated on the record that Oregon does “underfund our permitting agencies.” See also Natural Resources: Department of Environmental Quality


Find details concerning climate funding for "Climate Equity and Resilience

Through Action (CERTA) –$197 million”  in these informational meeting materials:






Updates on the Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities Program


  • Webinar on Climate-Smart Housing Production Strategies

  • Transportation Planning Rulemaking


ODOE – Updates 


ODOE Now Accepting Comments on Two Executive Order 25-29 Efforts — Energy Info


News



Oregon Treasury & Oregon Divest 


New 2025 Treasury : Climate-Positive Investing : Invested for Oregon

Report Tracking Net zero climate positive investment strategies.


Oregon pension shows climate progress, private markets drive emissions | Private Equity Stakeholder Project.org


Oregon State Treasury should engage or divest from companies fueling a new era of resource conflicts. (Divest Oregon. ORG)


Climate Lawsuits and Our Children’s Trust


February 18, 2026 

Youth At the Forefront of Petitions Challenging EPA’s Rescission of Landmark Climate Finding and Greenhouse Gas Standards for Vehicles

February 12, 2026 

Statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Revocation of the Endangerment Finding on the Dangers of Greenhouse Gases


There are a number of active federal lawsuits. Columbia University Law ( CUL) Climate Litigation Jan 30 Updates . Another source: CLU  - Sabin Climate DB lists 97 lawsuits, (active and dismissed) mentioning Oregon.




VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:  What is your passion related to Climate Emergency ?  You can help. Volunteers are needed.  The short legislative session begins in January of 2026. Many State Agency Boards and Commissions meet regularly year-round and need monitoring.  If any area of climate or natural resources is of interest to you, please contact Peggy Lynch, Natural Resources Coordinator, or Claudia Keith Climate Emergency at peggylynchor@gmail.com Or climatepolicy@lwvor.org.  Training will be offered.


· Natural and Working lands, specifically Agriculture

· Transportation and ODOT state agency

· Climate Related Lawsuits/Our Children’s TrustDA

· Public Health Climate Adaptation (OHA)

· Regional Solutions / Infrastructure (with NR team)

· State Procurement Practices (DAS: Dept. of Admin. Services)

· CE Portfolio State Agency and Commission Budgets

· Oregon Treasury: ESG investing/Fossil Fuel divestment



Interested in reading additional reports? Please see our Governance, Revenue, Natural Resources, and Social Policy report section

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