Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Jordan Cove LNG protest at Oregon's state capitol in Salem (photo credit: Emma Jones)

A new year and a new decade are upon us, and already 2020 has brought a huge set of changes and challenges for our communities. A global pandemic has starkly revealed the many ways in which we are failing to care for the health and well-being of our poor and working class, unhoused neighbors, immigrant communities, and other vulnerable people. Oregon’s already short legislative session was cut even shorter by Republican walkouts, making it impossible to pass critical new laws. Yet despite these challenges, we see people coming together to take care of each other, bringing supplies and mutual aid to one another, and all the while still tackling climate change as the broad-scale public health crisis that it remains.

Since 1986, the Covanta Marion waste incinerator (pictured above behind a nearby childcare facility) has been polluting Marion County just east of I-5 and north of Salem. Municipal garbage from the County, as well as medical waste imported from other states, are fed into the incinerator, producing highly toxic air emissions and ash. In fact, the facility is so toxic that it was singled out by the Cleaner Air Oregon program as a top priority for increased scrutiny out of hundreds of facilities statewide.

Due to a series of Republican walkouts over climate legislation, Oregon’s short five-week legislative session stagnated for its final two weeks, leaving a huge list of beneficial bills to languish. We condemn the walkout of legislators on our democratic process, which is harming thousands of Oregonians statewide. Here are the bills that Oregon PSR worked on this session, none of which passed both chambers in Salem:

Only two months into 2020, the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline proposed by Canadian fossil fuel company Pembina has suffered a slew of defeats thanks to region-wide organizing led by southern Oregonians. This massive fracked gas project would quickly become Oregon's largest single emitter of greenhouse gases and disrupt property rights, Tribes, natural resources, and existing fishing and tourism jobs. Oregon PSR has participated in numerous events that continue to signal that Oregon does not want this project and that our state has the authority to prevent it from ever being built.

With the submission deadline for our 2020 Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship having passed, we're delighted to announce the members of this year's judging team and the Keynote Speaker for the April 25th Awards Ceremony. 

Thanks to your help, Oregon PSR and our community partners stopped a 2019 bill in the Oregon State Legislature that would have given renewable energy credits to Covanta Marion, the state’s only municipal waste incinerator, in Brooks, OR. Now, Covanta is once again trying to divert clean energy money to put their aging waste incinerator on life support. We need your help to tell the House Committee on Rules to hold firm and reject clean energy subsidies for burning trash.

Take action: Tell the Oregon House Committee on Rules to Reject House Bill 4049, the Covanta Marion waste incineration subsidy bill. Here are some key talking points to convey:

• I am an Oregonian urging you to reject House Bill 4049, which would give renewable credit eligibility to Oregon’s only waste incinerator. 
• There is no reason to believe that Covanta will close without state renewable energy credits. The company is nationwide and highly profitable, meaning that the company does not need subsidies to stay afloat.
• Long-term, communities in Marion County are hard at work organizing to reduce waste in Marion County and advocate for more responsible solutions beyond burning or dumping trash.
• Covanta Marion has been incinerating waste since 1987. They don’t need or deserve renewable energy credits from the State of Oregon.
• Covanta Marion is Oregon’s 19th largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. We are in a climate crisis: lawmakers must not cast a vote that would divert funding for clean energy to a facility that is making climate change worse.
• Covanta Marion was selected by the Cleaner Air Oregon program for priority inspection out of hundreds of facilities. It is the single largest polluter of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides in Marion County. It also emits dioxins, an incredibly harmful and persistent environmental contaminant.
• Renewable energy credits are intended to support new, renewable energy. Even large hydroelectric dams do not qualify for these credits because they predate the creation of Oregon’s 2007 renewable portfolio standard.
• In 2019, lawmakers who voted for this bill received a negative mark on their environmental scorecard from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.
• Please oppose House Bill 4049 and preserve time in the short, 35-day legislative session for important issues.

When you submit your comments, be sure to include your full name and the city you live in. Thank you for taking action to protect the health of our communities and our climate!

Please also find your House legislator and send them an email, too.

More information:

Oregon PSR webpage on waste incineration

Don’t Use “Junk Science” to Guide Policy (op-ed by Oregon PSR Healthy Climate Action Team Member Dr. Patricia Kullberg)

Lawmakers to Give Marion County Trash Burner Another Chance to be “Renewable” (article in The Salem Reporter)

Waste-Burning Firm Spreads Money Chasing Carbon Cap Exemption for Brooks Plant (article in The Salem Reporter)

Just one week before an expected permit decision from the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL), Jordan Cove LNG has withdrawn their application for a Removal-Fill permit to dredge millions of cubic feet of sediment out of Coos Bay for LNG tankers and construct a pipeline through and under hundreds of waterways in Southern Oregon. The massive fracked gas project cannot move forward without this permit.

Oregon PSR's Healthy Climate Action Team member Patricia Kullberg, MD, MPH was a featured speaker at the rally to #StopJordanCove LNG in Salem on Thursday, November 21st. She spoke of a vision of healthy communities connected to the land and water, free from the threat of fossil fuel terminals and pipelines.

On Thursday, November 21st, nearly 750 people from across Oregon and northern California, including Indigenous community members, impacted landowners, young people, and many others came together to demand that Governor Brown stop the proposed Jordan Cove LNG project and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline. The proposed Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal in Coos Bay, as well as the proposed 229-mile Pacific Connector fracked methane gas pipeline, is an extremely hazardous fossil fuel project that would threaten our clean air, clean water, a stable climate, and the health of our communities. If approved, this project would constitute the largest single greenhouse gas pollution source in Oregon.