The Oregon Legislature wrapped up the 2025 regular session on Friday. Lawmakers passed bills that addressed utility rate hikes, large energy users like data centers and microgrids for local electricity generation, among other environmental issues. But some advocates think lawmakers didn’t go far enough in advancing the state’s carbon-cutting goals.
Nora Apter is the Oregon director for Climate Solutions, a regional nonprofit that advocates for climate policy. She joins us to talk about what lawmakers did – and didn’t – pass in terms of climate legislation and how federal rollbacks of environmental protections could impact the state’s climate goals.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Two years ago, Oregon lawmakers passed a whole suite of bills aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state. But in the session that just ended, the legislature cut funding for many of the programs it had recently created. Nora Apter is the Oregon director for the advocacy nonprofit Climate Solutions. She joins us to talk about what this will all mean for emissions in Oregon going forward. Welcome back to Think Out Loud.
Nora Apter: Thanks, great to be back, Dave.
Miller: What were your big priorities going into this session?
Apter: We really came into this session focused on meeting the moment that we’re in for affordability, for public health, for local jobs and our clean economy. We know Oregonians across the state are already being hit hard by climate change. Community members in every district are struggling to pay their energy bills because of high fossil fuel prices. And by the time the legislature wrapped up, we’d already seen an early start to the wildfire season that had burned over 20,000 acres, destroyed 56 homes. We saw record breaking heat for school closures.
So this session really presented an opportunity for legislators to respond to those risks and focus on solutions that Oregonians need to be safe and secure, as these impacts worsen. So the focus was really delivering investments in climate and community resilience, advancing progress on policies that protect Oregonians from rising utility costs and make progress toward our clean energy goals, and making the most of the transportation opportunity and delivering climate smart, equitable, transportation for Oregonians.
Miller: Well, how much of that were you able to accomplish?
Apter: Unfortunately, it was very much a mixed bag. Instead of advancing progress on many of those priorities, we saw a lot of them get sidelined, delayed or weakened. And even worse, we spent a lot of time and attention trying to defend against proposals that would have actually rolled back or against existing climate laws ...
Miller: What do you see as the biggest wins, the bright spots that I think you were just about to get to?
Apter: Yeah, there were some bright spots, specifically around making energy more affordable for Oregonians and also some really important progress around modernizing Oregon’s electric grid.
As I mentioned, a big focus this session was on protecting Oregon families and small businesses from rising energy costs, which is a familiar issue to Oregonians across the state. We’re seeing volatile fossil fuel prices, wildfire costs and surging demand from massive power users, like data centers, significantly hike up rates for Oregonians. A big piece of the energy affordability puzzle is who’s paying for it and is that structure fair?
And then the other part is really, are we delivering more clean energy, which is the most affordable energy there is? So we did see lawmakers step up in trying to rein in rising utility costs. Where they fell short was more in helping Oregonians transition off fossil fuels and be able to afford clean energy solutions.
Miller: Four different and recently created programs run by the Oregon Department of Energy saw big budget cuts. These are programs that funded rental home heat pumps, community heat pump deployment, community renewable energy and the one-stop shop program. What are these different reductions going to mean all rolled up together?
Apter: Well, these programs are not theoretical. They have been working the past two years to save lives, improve health [and] create jobs in our local economy that can’t be exported out of state. Especially as we head into another season of extreme heat and wildfires, we need these programs that, as you said, help renters install heat pumps to stay cool and safe, support rural energy resilience and job creation. But the legislature delivered $0 for these critical programs, which means if they haven’t already run out of funding, they will soon. That doesn’t represent just a missed line item in the budget. It really is a choice to leave Oregon communities more vulnerable as we head into another summer of extreme heat, wildfire and economic uncertainty.
Especially given the federal cuts that we’re anticipating and many of the rollbacks we’ve already seen, Oregon really should be doubling down on protecting its communities, and delivering protections for public health, economic development and cost savings, not retreating. So it is really, really disappointing.
Miller: I want to turn to the transportation package. We obviously talked about that at the beginning of the show with our reporter Dirk VanderHart and you mentioned it briefly in terms of what you were hoping to see from lawmakers this session. What exactly did you want in a transportation package?
Apter: As you have heard, these packages don’t come around every year. This package really represented a once-in-a-decade opportunity to help reduce emissions from transportation, which remains our largest source of climate pollution. So what we were hoping to see in this package was real investments to accelerate programs that deliver clean air and equitable access to transportation, investments in clean trucks that get more electric vehicles on the road and replace diesel-emitting vehicles with clean alternatives. Investments in charging infrastructure that will be key to moving the needle and making sure that there’s a place to plug in across the state.
All of these programs mean jobs in our communities. They mean cleaner air in our neighborhoods, less diesel pollution, and unfortunately this is another area where we were forced to play a lot of defense. Lawmakers spent three months debating a bill that would have actually rolled back existing clean air standards, like our clean truck rules that, again, are intended to get more electric trucks on the road to reduce pollution in our neighborhood.
So I would say we were excited to see the Democrats’ proposed package include important investments in transit and safer streets. Those are really key programs to help move the needle, especially long term on climate pollution. But the proposed package didn’t invest a dollar in electric school buses, clean trucks or charging infrastructure, and actually could have made it more expensive to drive electric than gas.
Miller: So to put it bluntly, what do you think is better: no transportation package, at least for now, or the package that the legislature ended up coming up with?
Apter: I’m so glad you asked that. Yeah, even with those shortcomings, it was deeply disappointing to see the legislature fail to move forward with this package. As you’ve heard, transit agencies are facing layoffs and service cuts, just when Oregonians need more affordable and reliable transportation options. So we’re looking forward to continuing to work with legislators. We really want and need to find a path forward, and are hopeful that we can make sure that future proposals really meet the moment and move the needle on climate and transit ridership.
Miller: As you said, you ended up really on the defensive to a great extent this session, trying to prevent existing climate programs or policies from being cut, rolled back or defunded. Why do you think that is?
Apter: Thanks, Dave. I mean, as I said at the top, Oregonians are living the consequences of climate inaction every day, whether it’s skyrocketing bills from fossil fuel prices or the smoke and devastation from wildfires, and they want the solutions that we have at our fingertips to deliver clean air, safe communities and affordable energy.
Unfortunately, fossil fuel interests are working hard to protect the status quo and that influence showed up in force this session. We saw intense industry lobbying aimed at rolling back key protections like our clean truck standards, blocking efforts to invest in clean transportation. We have the solutions we need to deliver a healthy climate and resilient communities, and what we’re lacking is political courage to overcome the status quo.
Again, given the void in federal leadership and just the sheer egregiousness of attacks we’re seeing on climate and environmental justice from the Trump administration and Congress, we really needed leaders to step up the session. We needed boldness. Unfortunately, we got a lot of delay.
Miller: I’m going to turn to the federal side in just a second. But I was looking at Governor Kotek’s press release talking about, this is what happened, this is what I’m happy with, this is where we need to help, unfinished business … her press release about the session that just ended. And she did not mention the words “climate” or “environment” anywhere in that press release. What do you make of that?
Apter: Governor Kotek has made clear she’s committed to holding the line on existing progress. She has, for example, responded to federal action taking away authority for states like Oregon to have clean transportation laws that protect our air. Whether she steps up to fill the void, given legislative inaction, given attacks at the federal level, I think remains to be seen. We have more questions than answers and look forward to seeing how the governor steps up to deliver, in this decisive decade, for climate action.
Miller: What are you most focused on? What are you paying the most attention to right now, in terms of federal actions that could have an impact on Oregon’s policies and programs?
Apter: Really, since day one of the new administration, we have seen, not just a series of policy changes, but really an all-out assault on our communities and our climate future. The reconciliation bill, the “big beautiful bill,” moving through Congress right now would be devastating for Oregon, there’s just no two ways around it.
The bill would gut key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which I know we’ve talked about before. This is really the biggest climate investment in U.S. history. And Oregon has been reaping the benefits of those federal dollars for the last three years to fund things like clean energy and rural community development projects, rebates for home electrification, electric vehicle infrastructure, frontline community resilience. And, unless the state steps up to fill the void, if Congress moves forward with slashing this critical funding, it will have really severe consequences. It could mean higher energy bills, fewer local jobs and stalled clean energy projects that will have long-term and near-term impacts for Oregon’s climate in our communities.
So this is another area where it’s essential for Oregon to fill the gap. We need to see smart investments, we need to restore funding for key climate and community resilience programs. We need to continue to address barriers to achieving our clean energy goals. We need aggressive implementation of our climate commitments. And Oregon has always been a national leader. We’ve seen the state take bold action. This session wasn’t it, but we’re eager to course-correct and deliver what Oregonians need.
Miller: Nora, thanks very much.
Apter: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: Nora Apter is the Oregon director for the climate policy advocacy nonprofit Climate Solutions.
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