Act Now: State of Oregon Proposes to Let Polluters Off the Hook in “Climate Protection Program” Rules
Call on Oregon Environmental Agencies to do more to protect Oregonians from climate pollution
With the climate crisis deepening—over 100 people lost their lives to extreme heat in June—we expect Gov. Brown and Oregon regulators to step up and take bold action. Are they tackling the climate crisis head on? No. Instead, the Oregon Dept. of Environment Quality just released draft rules that give fossil-fuel polluters a free pass.
Act Now
DEQ’s draft “Climate Protection Program” rules fall far short of the program’s lofty name. Why?
- Instead of protecting Oregonians from the impacts of climate change, the draft rules grant a wholesale exemption for fracked-gas power plants.
- DEQ’s draft rules carve out significant loopholes that will allow Oregon’s top polluters to continue polluting largely unabated.
- The current rules favor lower costs for polluters over the health and safety of Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and other frontline Oregonians who suffer the impacts of climate-changing pollution first and worst. The draft rules ignore DEQ’s goal of protecting frontline communities from greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, like smog-forming pollution from fracked-gas power plants.
TAKE ACTION: Click here to submit a comment today urging DEQ to make the “Climate Protection Program” live up to its name rather than being a free pass for dirty fracked gas.
You have an important voice in this. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC)—which oversees DEQ—can direct DEQ to develop a more effective program that takes a stronger stand for all Oregonians.
Join us at one of the EQC’s public hearings on September 22 and 30.
