Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Great news! The City of Eugene voted this week to move forward with several measures advancing the transition away from gas in homes and buildings. The motions include one directing staff to draft ordinance language to mandate that all new homes be constructed 100% electric by June 1st, 2023; a second advancing conversations to transition new commercial and industrial construction to require all electric; and a third seeks to formalize Eugene’s goal of electrifying all existing residential and commercial buildings by 2035. 

I want to extend my deep gratitude and best wishes on behalf of all of us at Oregon PSR to Sean Tenney, our Associate Director, who will be leaving our organization in mid-August as he moves on to new adventures living in Spain later this summer. Sean has contributed so much to building an effective organization during his twelve-year tenure, from improving our website and communications infrastructure to organizing annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorials to providing behind-the-scenes support for all of our programmatic work and more. Sean's sense of humor and passion for justice will be missed! 

Our deepest thanks and well-wishes to Jackie Lamars, who has been Oregon PSR’s Program Assistant through the Quaker Voluntary Service fellowship program for the past year. Jackie did a tremendous job of designing and overseeing our 2022 Greenfield Peace Scholarship, took the lead on improving our social media outreach, and supported all of our work in ways too numerous to count.

Dr. Richard Bruno is a double-boarded Family & Preventive medicine physician, serving as the Senior Medical Director for Primary Care at a federally-qualified health center that focuses on healthcare for the homeless in Portland, Oregon. He has led workshops, conferences, rallies, and actions for health justice and climate justice. His main clinical focuses are on HIV, gender affirming care, obesity, and opioids, with involvement in community public health interventions and policies, including cooking classes for kids and legislation expanding access to medication for opioid use disorder.

On Friday, June 24th, the US Supreme Court ruled that each state may now create any laws it wishes to regulate or completely ban abortion services, overturning nearly 50 years of precedent created with the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. This ruling is an injustice that affects so many and stands to disproportionately impact the health and safety of people of color, LGBTQ communities, low-income communities, and people who experience systemic barriers to comprehensive reproductive healthcare. Abortion access is a human right and a matter of health equity, reproductive, and environmental justice. As an organization guided by the values and expertise of healthcare and public health, Oregon PSR will continue to find ways to confront this injustice within our work to promote a healthy, just, and peaceful world.

Currently, Oregon is one of the few states where abortion is fully protected. However, we must stay vigilant in the face of such injustice.

Sign up to testify for the Portland Fossil Fuel Terminal Zoning Amendment (FFTZA) hearing this Thursday, June 30th at 2:00 PM. This landmark law will ban new or expanded bulk fossil fuel infrastructure and we need your support!

As we move towards a more solar- and wind-dependent energy grid in the United States, the need for energy storage is expected to increase dramatically. Since solar and wind power systems are dependent upon the sun shining or the wind blowing, their reliability hinges upon storing energy when generation is higher than demand and releasing it when demand is higher than generation. Currently, the two leading technologies for this wide-scale level of energy storage include pumped hydro energy storage and battery systems. A recent academic review of both systems highlights their individual strengths: 

Oregon PSR supports Initiative Petition 17, a common-sense gun safety measure drafted by Lift Every Voice Oregon (LEVO). There is a very simple way to sign this petition: go to the website of Lift Every Voice Oregon (LEVO) and sign the petitions from home! All you have to do is print the signature page, sign it twice, print your name and address once, and send it to LEVO. The deadline for petition signatures being delivered to the LEVO office is the evening of next Tuesday, July 5th, so please sign and send today!

The Oregon State Treasury needs to change its investment strategy, concluded a new report which Oregon PSR co-sponsored called "Risky Business: Oregon Treasury's Fossil Fuel Problem." The report details the investments in fossil fuels made by the Oregon State Treasury that are known to the public, and outlines how continued support of the fossil fuel industry by the state exposes Oregonians to climate and health risks, economic cost, and financial risks. "Risky Business" reveals how the Oregon State Treasury has at least $5.3 billion invested in fossil fuel companies with over $1 billion invested in the coal industry alone. A great place to find a summary is on Divest Oregon's Report webpage.

Thanks to the generous support of donors like you, Oregon PSR surpassed our Earth Day Challenge matching pledge in April, raising over $10,000 to support our climate work. Thank you so much! As we celebrated a holiday in honor of protecting our environment, as well as our significant victories for healthier communities and a healthier climate over the past decade, we also acknowledged the growing impacts of devastating climate chaos and injustice and the many challenges ahead.