Dear John,

I don’t know if you saw the news, but our 2023 Scorecard is OUT and we want to make sure your lawmakers know their scores! Will you help me out by messaging your lawmakers either thanking them for their good work in 2023 or urging them to be better in 2024? 

I’m heading to the capitol next week for November Legislative Days as the state prepares for the 2024 short session in February. While I’m there, I’m so excited to hand deliver a physical copy of The Oregon League of Conservation 2023 Environmental Scorecard for the Oregon State Legislature––which you can check out online www.olcvscorecard.org/2023. 

Thank you for all you do. It will make my hand delivery of the scorecard so much more powerful if your lawmakers hear from you about their scores. 

Thank you,

Julia DeGraw
Coalition Director

It’s arrived: The 2023 Environmental Scorecard for the Oregon Legislature is now available! 

Dear John,

The 2023 Oregon State Legislative Session was rough, to say the least. Oregonians had to witness not just another Republican walkout, but the LONGEST Republican walkout in state history. The six-week stunt nearly shut down the state, and went against the will of Oregon voters (both Republican and Democrat) who overwhelmingly voted to stop walkouts. One thing was clear: Oregonians expect their elected officials to show up for work just like we do. And yet, they walked out again. 

Thankfully the leadership in the Senate and the House held strong. Speaker Dan Rayfield kept the House working hard and passing as many bills as possible so they were ready to go when and if the Republican senators returned. While Senate President Rob Wagner held strong in not giving in to Republican demands. In the end, enough Republican senators returned to pass the budget and the some 300+ bills that had piled up in their absence. 

Those bills included HB 3409 and HB 3630, a huge climate and energy package that created a $90 million budget and will allow Oregon to compete for billions of dollars of federal funding for climate change reduction and resilience. The package included all of our Resilient, Efficient Buildings Priority bills and the Natural Climate Solutions Priority bill. We passed a majority of our priorities including the Toxic Free Kids Act Modernization bill (HB 3043), Toxic Free Cosmetics (SB 546), Legalizing Reusables (SB 545), and a Polystyrene Ban (SB 543). Check out more of the major environmental bills that were voted on this year in the Scorecard! 

Unfortunately, as is the case every session, we also spent a huge amount of our energy and time fighting bad bills. We designated six bills as Major Threats and we were able to kill or improve all of them. Most notable was HB 3414––a housing bill that included unnecessary expansion of Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs), threatening our land use system. That bill died on the floor of the Senate by one single vote. The Oregon we know and love is in large part due to our iconic land use laws which have prevented urban sprawl––both protecting our natural environment and agricultural land, and helping protect people from wildfires by having less development in potentially high fire risk areas. The housing crisis was not brought on by our strong land use laws, and we are not going to build more affordable housing by expanding UGBs. We’re grateful to the lawmakers who took a stand by voting no on this bill. 

In addition to killing a lot of bad bills, a lot of good bills unfortunately also died this session. One such bill was 100% Clean For Data Centers (HB 2816) which aimed to close the loophole in the 100% Clean Energy for All bill passed in 2021. Data centers are a huge and quickly growing source of electricity in Oregon, and we will have to address their energy use if we are going to meet our clean energy goals and avert the worst effects of climate change. It was also a big disappointment to see Right to Repair (SB 542) and Toxic Free Schools (SB 426) die––both were OCN priorities that fell victim to the Republican walk out. For more on both good and bad bills that died, you can check out the Bill Graveyard section of the Scorecard.   
 
The Scorecard is one of our best tools for holding our elected leaders accountable. In it you can see how your state senator and state representative voted on the climate and environment, so you can hold them accountable as we head toward the next election. Please send an email to your lawmakers either thanking them for voting for the bills you care about or asking them to do better next year.

This grueling and tough session took its toll–only three senators and four representatives received a perfect 100% score. Six legislators were honored with awards. Click here to find out which lawmakers won awards for the 2023 Legislative session and who received a perfect score.

As we look back at the 2023 legislative session, we want to say a big thank you to YOU and your activism! You sent emails to your lawmakers, signed petitions, posted on social media, attended hearings, and showed up for our virtual Lobby Day. Now, take a look at the Scorecard and see how your hard work has paid off. Then, join us in holding our lawmakers accountable as we head into the 2024 short session and the next election! Email your legislators and either thank them for standing up for the environment in 2023, or ask them to do better in 2024.

Thank you,

Julia DeGraw
Coalition Director

P.S. This year’s Scorecard cover photo (and the winner of our 2023 Environmental Photo Contest) is volunteers of the Pacific Crest Trail Association All Women Volunteer Crew, taken by Teri Smith. Click here to see it, and other photos from photo contest finalists included in the Scorecard.