What Does Peace Really Mean? Reflections on a Visit to Hanford's B Reactor
The face of the Hanford B Reactor, 36 feet tall with over 2,000 horizontal aluminum loading tubes.
July 27th, 2017
By Damon Motz-Storey, Oregon PSR Program Assistant
On July 7th, 2017, one hundred and twenty-two countries in the United Nations voted to enact a treaty ban on nuclear weapons. Not a single one of those 122 countries was a nuclear-armed nation. On July 11th, 2017, I traveled with seven others from Oregon PSR to visit the first fully functional nuclear reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reserve near Richland, Washington. It took us many hours of driving along the Columbia River and watching the landscape around us change dramatically from verdant, rain-soaked Portland to the yellow, arid plains of eastern Washington. In one way, it felt like a return to familiar lands, since I grew up driving from dry Colorado across the Midwestern plains to see my family in Southern Illinois.
Read moreOregon Legislative Wrap-Up 2017
The 2017 Oregon legislative session finished up this month with a few victories and a lot of disappointment in terms of protecting the health of Oregonians. Oregon PSR weighed in on a number of bills from climate and environmental health protection to stopping nuclear power, curbing gun violence, and ensuring all kids have access to health care. Thanks to so many of you who responded to our numerous requests to call your legislators, attended lobby days, and submitted testimony.
Here’s how it all shook out in the end:
Read more15 Organizations Oppose Metro Sending Waste to Covanta Incinerator
Oregon PSR, NAACP Portland and Neighbors for Clean Air along with twelve other organizations sent a letter today to Metro Council asking them to oppose sending waste to the Covanta incinerator in Brooks, Oregon.
Read moreJUST SAY NO to Toxic Coal Exports
The Columbia River site where Millennium Bulk Terminals wishes to build the largest coal export facility in North America.
You may be one of the more than 250,000 voices that have risen up to say NO to what would be the largest coal export facility in the nation. If so, thank you!
We need your help again. Tell the Washington Department of Ecology to deny a key water pollution permit and stop dirty coal dust and toxic pollutants from fouling the Columbia River.
Read moreCitizen Groups Vow to Keep Pushing for Fossil Fuel Policy Protections in Portland
Fossil Fuel Industry Puts our Communities and Climate at Risk
July 19, 2017 (Salem, OR) – Today, the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) ruled that Portland’s Fossil Fuel Terminal Zoning Amendments, passed unanimously in December of 2016, is inconsistent with the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Portland’s fossil fuel policy intended to prevent new major fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the City. LUBA dismissed many of the other arguments brought by the oil industry and the Portland Business Alliance against the City’s policy. LUBA’s ruling is likely to be appealed to the State Court of Appeals.
Read moreOregon PSR Wins Major Victory in Oregon Legislature, Saves State’s Nuclear Power Moratorium Until There is a Permanent Solution for Waste
In May, Oregon PSR caught wind of Senate Bill 990, which had passed in the State Senate, and immediately began working with a coalition of environmental groups and supporters throughout the state to defeat a bill that would have gutted Oregon's voter-passed nuclear power moratorium and allowed the construction of small modular nuclear reactors. Intense lobbying and hundreds of constituent contacts later, we won! SB 990 died in House Committee.
Former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts co-authored an opinion piece to The Oregonian in response to the proposed legislation. Please read it to learn more about why we opposed this legislation, and contact us to learn more and to get more involved in preventing future nuclear power development in our region.
Read moreOregon Legislators Derail Effort to Hide Oil Train Safety Plans
Oregon lawmakers withdrew a bill on Friday that would allow railroads to keep plans for oil train disasters a secret.
A year after a train derailed, caught fire and spilled oil into the Columbia River in Mosier, lawmakers were poised to approve a measure that would require railroads to draft worst-case scenario plans. But the bill also would prevent public scrutiny by exempting the plans from Oregon public records law and legal subpoenas.
By a 31-26 vote, the House of Representatives agreed to send the bill back to the Legislature's ways and means committee for more work.
Read moreMosier Project Denied Again to Protect Tribal Rights
It appears the legal dance over Union Pacific Railroad’s proposed siding project will continue. On Tuesday, the Columbia River Gorge Commission (CRGC) rejected UP’s appeal, thereby denying the railroad’s bid to build an extended railroad siding at Mosier.
In a lengthy hearing at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center that included Friends of the Columbia River Gorge showing a video of the fiery oil train derailment at Mosier on June 3, 2016, multiple attorneys on both sides of the siding issue argued back and forth in what an attorney for Union Pacific referred to as “a merry-go-round.”
Read moreVancouver Oil Terminal Will Be Hazardous To Our Health (Stan Freidberg, PSR)
Stan Freidberg is a PSR champion--36 out of his 37 years as a cardiologist at The Vancouver Clinic has been as a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Read his op-ed about the health dangers of the proposed Tesoro-Savage oil terminal in The Columbian.
Portland & Multnomah County Pass Nation's Most Progressive Commitment to 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
On Thursday, June 1st, the Portland City Council and Multnomah County Commissioners both unanimously voted "yes" to commit Portland and Multnomah County to powering community-wide energy needs with renewable energy by the year 2050. The votes come as a huge local success, tragically coinciding with President Trump's announcement of pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord for action on climate change.
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