THE OREGON GREEN NEW DEAL

The Oregon Green New Deal is a blueprint for how we can transition Oregon’s economy away from extraction and towards regeneration. In 2020, Rogue Climate is working with the Oregon Just Transition Alliance to hear from people across the state about what a just transition to renewable energy should look like in their communities.

We’ve got 12 years to take meaningful climate actions to mitigate the effects of climate change and protect vulnerable communities. A just transition to a renewable future means:

1. Phase Out Fossil Fuel Infrastructure
Place a moratorium on all new fossil fuel permits and projects.

Assess the risk to neighboring communities of existing fossil fuel infrastructure to prioritize and plan for its decommissioning.
Offer workers job programs, including job training to transition from fossil fuel and other extractive industries to renewable energy and other sectors.

2. Strong Regulation for Healthy, Breathable Air

Enact strong regulation of diesel and other pollution from industry, transportation, and energy sectors.
Use Oregon’s Volkswagen settlement funds and other funding to reduce diesel pollution, prioritizing investment toward tribes, rural communities, low income people, and communities of color and the businesses they own and operate.
Ban trash incinerators from operating in our communities.
Provide jobs and job training for workers from polluting industries to obtain green jobs.

3. Clean, Community-Controlled, 100% Renewable Energy

In order to limit global warming to 1.5 C we must reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Establish a pathway toward 100% renewable energy that prioritizes job creation for existing fossil fuel workers, low-income people and people of color, and creates opportunities for community-owned energy generation by low-income, tribal and rural communities to build thriving and sustainable Oregonian businesses and families.
Ban greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels and nuclear generation electricity. Remove dams and provide restitution for tribes.
Develop community-controlled energy projects and requirements for energy-neutral construction.
Support low-income ratepayers through this transition.

4. Regenerative, Sustainable Farms and Forests

Care for Oregon’s natural and agricultural resources, people and communities who experience them.
Ensure Oregon’s forests, which remove carbon from the air, are sustainably managed.
Invest in tree canopies, resilient landscapes, and regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon and clean regional airsheds.
Protect farm and forest workers, and the ecosystem from toxic emissions and harmful pesticides.
Ensure green workforce opportunities for low-income, people of color, and former forest industry workers to create high-paying, sustainable jobs in the forest economy.

5. Transportation Justice

Address transportation, one of the largest carbon polluters in our state and a major source of air toxics and greenhouse gases.
Expand the use of the Highway Trust Fund towards multi-modal transportation and moving people and cargo without fossil fuels.
Ensure equitable electrification and driver’s license eligibility for all regardless of immigration status.
Enact equitable regional transportation funding mechanisms.
Expand the transit operations workforce.

6. Protect Communities Already Experiencing a Changing Climate

Ensure communities are prepared for and made whole following more extreme weather events including heat waves, poor air quality, forest fires, erosion, and floods. Directly engage Tribal, rural, and low-income communities and communities of color in this process.
Offer outdoor workers and others whose jobs are destroyed by climate change new jobs and job training to transition to clean energy and other industries.
Expand the restoration and disaster preparedness workforce. Ensure funding so that all communities have emergency shelters to protect residents in the case of a disaster.

7. Fund the Just Transition
Fund real climate solutions.

Create progressive mechanisms and institutions, such as a Green Bank, to ensure communities are not competing for jobs or funding.
Ensure equitable decision-making processes in the allocation of funds.
Ensure equal access to training and jobs in the transition to a green economy with living wage, family-supporting jobs and protect and support existing sustainable jobs.
Require all publicly funded projects to have specific local hire provisions.