Oregon's Climate Protection Program

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is close to finalizing rules for a new Climate Protection Program that will regulate and reduce emissions from some of Oregon’s top polluters. Over the past year, DEQ has made a number of positive changes to strengthen the rules; however, a few key decisions still hang in the balance. We need your help to make this program as ambitious as possible and make progress in the fight for a healthy climate future.

Join OEC in sending a clear message to DEQ: the time for bold climate action is now.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is close to finalizing rules for a new Climate Protection Program that will regulate and reduce emissions from some of Oregon’s top polluters. Over the past year, DEQ has made a number of positive changes to strengthen the rules; however, a few key decisions still hang in the balance. We need your help to make this program as ambitious as possible and make progress in the fight for a healthy climate future.

Join OEC in sending a clear message to DEQ: the time for bold climate action is now.

We Want a Bold Climate Protection Program

Please personalize and send this letter to DEQ today! Urge them to strengthen the Climate Protection Program (CPP) to maximize outcomes for our climate, communities, and local economies – AND ADOPT WITHOUT DELAY.

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Dear DEQ Office of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed rules to establish a “Climate Protection Program.” As an Oregonian who cares deeply about the future of our state and our planet, I am grateful that DEQ is taking action to reduce emissions from our top sources of climate pollution. I also know that time is running out to act, which is why I’m eager to see DEQ and the EQC adopt the most ambitious Climate Protection Program possible, without delay.

I urge you to maintain language in the final rules that will ensure the integrity of the program, including: reducing the threshold over time for transportation fuel suppliers to be included in the program, limiting the use of alternative compliance options (“Community Climate Investments”) and providing increased oversight to make sure that the CCI program is meeting its stated climate and equity goals.

I also urge you to make changes to further strengthen the rule language and ensure that the Climate Protection Program follows the best available science, holds industrial polluters accountable for their emissions, and guarantees investments in environmental justice communities. Specifically, I urge you to:

- Adopt an emissions cap trajectory that follows the best available science and requires a 50 percent emissions reduction by 2030. The recent IPCC report is just the latest scientific evidence that ambitious, near-term emissions reductions will be critical to avoiding climate catastrophe. Oregon is already witnessing the extreme cost of climate inaction firsthand: this summer’s climate-fueled extreme heat, widespread drought, and early wildfire season are just the latest examples of how climate change is worsening public health crises and costing Oregon taxpayers billions of dollars in health costs alone. Please strengthen the cap trajectory to reflect the best available science.

- Hold industrial polluters accountable to mandatory declining emissions reductions. Given that there are currently no climate regulations on major industrial polluters in Oregon, it is unacceptable that emissions from these sources could increase under the current draft rules. I urge DEQ to require that industrial polluters be subject to mandatory declining emissions limits, and at the very least have an emissions reduction plan in place that is verified by a third-party and reflects the urgency of the crisis and our state’s overall climate targets.

- Provide greater certainty that Community Climate Investments (CCI) will achieve meaningful, near-term reductions of emissions and co-pollutants, with at least a 1:1 reduction of emissions per credit, and guarantee investments in Oregon communities historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by climate harms. I am concerned that without greater clarity, the CCI program will allow pollution to continue unabated in frontline communities and break the overall emissions “cap.”

Thank you for your consideration, and I once again urge you to strengthen and adopt the most ambitious Climate Protection Program without delay.

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