Oregon PSR Opposes Measure 105
"...we believe that all people, wherever they were born, deserve a healthy environment with clean air, clean water, and a stable climate."
Oregon PSR opposes Measure 105 (formerly Initiative Petition 22 or IP 22), an attempt by the anti-immigrant hate group Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR) to repeal our state’s 30-year-old inclusivity law (ORS 181A.820) prohibiting the use of state and local resources to enforce federal immigration law. OFIR is recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a nativist extremist group with ties to white nationalism. If successful, Measure 105 would put repealing our 1987 inclusivity law, which is strongly supported by state and local law enforcement, onto Oregon's November 2018 ballot.
Read moreGrowing Cost and Safety Problems at the CGS Nuclear Power Plant
On August 20th of this year a valve in the Columbia Generating Station (CGS) nuclear power plant’s condenser froze shut, stopping its ability to cool the reactor core and forcing plant operators to rapidly shut down the nuclear plant. It remained at zero power for nearly two weeks. This loss of power generation gives us an insight into how the years have taken their toll on this aging GE Boiling Water Reactor – the last remaining commercial nuclear power facility in the Pacific Northwest.
Read moreBuilding Momentum for Safer Communities and a Healthier Climate
As I began writing this article in September in Shady Cove, I smelled smoke. The Chetco Bar fire was burning in the Illinois River Valley, Chetco River corridor, and Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The Milli fire was burning in and near the Three Sisters Wilderness. At home, the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia Gorge was growing. Friends recently evacuated from the west side of the Gorge were returning home, while those to the east prepared to leave.
Read moreVictory in the Movement for Clean Energy, Not Fracked Gas
At the beginning of this year, Oregon PSR joined a new campaign to shut down Portland General Electric’s plans to build new gas power plants at the Carty Generating Station near Boardman, Oregon. The plants would have increased imports of fracked "natural" gas from Canada into the state, replacing the soon-to-be decommissioned Boardman Coal Plant with another climate-busting fossil fuel.
Read moreICAN Wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
Ten years after being founded by Physicians for Social Responsibility's international federation (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War), the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their successful efforts to establish the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Read more"What Unites Us" with Portland Gay Men's Chorus
Join us Sunday, October 15th at 3pm for "What Unites Us," a Portland Gay Men's Chorus concert uplifting the work of social justice organizations including Oregon PSR, the NAACP of Portland, and more.
Read moreHUGE VICTORY! State Denies Key Water Quality Permit for Longview Coal Project
Breaking news! We're celebrating a huge victory today. As a co-director of the Power Past Coal coalition, I'm thrilled to thank each of you for working so hard to defeat the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminal project, the largest coal export facility in the country. Your hard work, connected to the work of health professionals and activists from the mines to the ports, helped convince the State of Washington to deny a key permit today. This dirty and dangerous coal facility cannot be built!
Read moreStop Deadly and Dirty Big Coal in Its Tracks
Huge piles of coal on the banks of our Columbia River, with dangerous coal dust contaminating our river and our neighborhoods? Diesel pollution damaging our health?
That’s what we could be looking at – uncovered piles of coal 8 stories high and 16 mile-long, uncovered coal trains barreling every day of the year along the Columbia River, through our neighborhoods, threatening our air quality, water quality, and public safety.
Read moreJohn Oliver's Nuclear Waste Segment - What it Gets Right & Wrong
John Oliver, formerly of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," tackled the expansive issue of nuclear waste and its dangers on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight." The episode aired on August 20th, 2017 (content warning: explicit language). The comedian made some very good points (and jokes) about the health impacts of this frequently hushed-up issue. We take a look at what Mr. Oliver and his team did well, and what wasn't quite right.
Read moreMultiple Violations Found at State's Nuclear Power Plant
On August 10th, 2017 Susannah Frame of King 5 News in Washington State published an in-depth look at nuclear waste transport violations at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, WA. The report was based on a tip provided by our Nuclear Power Program. Because of multiple errors in its shipping of radioactive waste, The Washington State Department of Health has suspended indefinitely the shipment of radioactive waste from the nuclear plant.
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