SalemWatch: Stopping Invasive Species, Fighting Climate Change
Each week we will update you on any of OCN’s priorities when there is news to report. For the complete list and overview of all of the Priorities for a Healthy Oregon visit www.oregonpriorities.org Thanks to the leadership in the House, including strong leadership from Speaker Dave Hunt and Majority Leader Mary Nolan, the bill passed the House 32-28. It is now up to the Senate to decide its fate. Call your Senator Today and urge him or her to vote yes on HB 2186. This bill is currently in the Senate Environment and Natural Resource Committee, and is slated for a work session Tuesday, May 26th. Contact: Jake Weigler, Healthy Climate Partnership, (503) 206-4473 Promote Healthy Transportation Options Contact: Brock Howell, Environment Oregon, (503) 231-1986
House Bill 2001, Transportation Package: In Joint House and Senate Transportation Committee The transportation package that began the session with great promise as a balanced and sustainable proposal has unfortunately become a nearly one billion dollar road building bill. The details of HB 2001, which have finally emerged from behind closed doors, were heard this week before a newly created Joint Special Committee on Transportation. The Governor's Transportation Vision Committee that helped craft the original Jobs and Transportation Act had recommended that Oregon's six major metropolitan areas adopt new transportation and land use planning strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Under the current bill, only the Portland Metro region must meet these goals. HB 2001 also does not increase the state's bike & pedestrian funding from 1% to 1.5% of transportation projects. Earlier this week, OLCV and several other groups delivered a letter to the Governor and legislative leaders outlining the groups' criticisms of HB 2001. HB 2001 will be voted on by both the House and Senate very soon. Please contact your representative and senator and urge them to change HB 2001 into a balanced and sustainable package that the environmental community can support. Contact: Danielle Welliver, 1000 Friends of Oregon, (360) 259-8385 Stop the Spread of Invasive Species
 VICTORY! Senate Bill 571, Increased Penalties heads to Governor! SB 571, a bill that increases the penalty for any intentional release of non-native fish into any of Oregon's bodies of water without a permit, has passed both the House and Senate Floors. If signed by the Governor, the penalty would increase to a maximum fine of $125,000, maximum imprisonment of five years, or both. A few years ago, the state spent more than $5 million to eradicate an invasive fish species from Diamond Lake in Southern Oregon.
HB 3072: Bill to Allow Unsustainable Logging Practices
Status: In Ways and Means
On Wednesday, the Ways and Means Natural Resources subcommittee held a hearing on House Bill 3072. This bill would require that the Tillamook, Clatsop and other State Forests be managed primarily for timber production, resulting in significant increases in unsustainable logging on these public forests that shelter some of Oregon's most important runs of coastal salmon and steelhead. This bill has drawn extensive opposition from fishing guides, fish conservation groups, environmental advocates, and even the Oregon Board of Forestry, who all believe the bill would throw state forest management out of balance. This is the third session OCN groups have had to fight this major threat to Oregon's environment. It appears that some key legislators may be using the threat of a vote on this bill to influence the outcome of a Board of Forestry decision on appropriate levels of protection for older forest in the Tillamook on June 3.
Contact: Ivan Maluski at the Sierra Club, (503) 449-2270
HB3058: LNG Fast Track Bill Hearing Today
Status: In House Rules Committee This afternoon the House Rules Committee is hearing House Bill 3058, a bill that would speed the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipelines. The Oregon Conservation Network has declared this bill a major threat to a healthy Oregon, as LNG emits much more global warming pollution over its life cycle than domestic gas. The bill would allow out-of-state LNG corporations like Texas-based NorthernStar Natural Gas to get dredge and fill permits on other Oregonians’ land, and waste state agency time processing permits that may never be used. There simply is no need to streamline the siting of damaging, dirty, expensive LNG facilities to serve California's energy demands. Read more about the bill on BlueOregon.
Contact: Evan Manvel, OLCV/Oregon Conservation Network, (503) 515-8548
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 1. Phosphorous Ban in Automatic Dish Soap passes House Now on its way to the Governor’s desk for signature, SB 631 will help clean up waters of the state by reducing the amount of phosphorus discharged from municipal waste water. Phosphorus is identified as a water quality limiting pollutant in 54 water bodies and streams throughout the state. By 2010, automatic dish soap will be limited to less than 0.5 % phosphorus by weight. This bill closes a big loophole that was allowed in the 1991 phosphorus ban that removed phosphorus from laundry soap. The chief sponsor of the bill was Sen. Dingfelder and it was successfully carried by Rep. Bailey in the House. Read more about it in the Register Guard, and congratulations to all who worked on this bill! Contact: Sue Marshall, Confluence Consulting, (971) 506-4617 2. Working Toward Creating Healthy and Green Schools Reducing the use of pesticide in schools and cleaning up polluting diesel school buses are effective ways to improve the health of our school environments and our kids. Senate Bill 637 will create healthier schools by requiring that all K-12 schools in Oregon adopt Integrated Pest Management policies, reducing the use of pesticides in and around schools. House Bill 2795 requires that all diesel school buses in Oregon are retrofitted by 2017 or those that are too old to be retrofitted be replaced by 2025 to reduce diesel pollution. Diesel exhaust exacerbates asthma and is linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, regional haze and global warming. Both of these bills have passed their chambers of origin and are currently being considered in committee. Please urge the House Education Committee to support SB 637 and the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee to support HB 2795. Find out who is on each of these committees here. Contact: Andrea Salinas, Oregon Environmental Council (971) 221-2653 or Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis, Oregon Environmental Council (503) 222-1963
3. Eliminating DecaBDE from Household Items; Close to a Floor Vote
Legislative Town Halls
Coming Up...
OCN
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House Bill 2186, Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Call your Senator!
Representative Michael Dembrow
Representative Phil Barnhart
Senator Vicki Berger