The 2021 Oregon Legislative Session: Wildfire, Water, Forests, and Clean Energy
The 2021 Oregon Legislative Session was unlike any other before: taking place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the wake of major economic, social, and environmental crises in Oregon and across the country. Despite the challenges of distance and exceptional circumstances, we were fortunate to secure several significant achievements core to the mission of Sustainable Northwest and the places we work. Below, we review some of the critical pieces of legislation and funding packages that passed this session.
GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT WILDFIRE
Our primary focus this session was on wildfire policy reform and increased investments in forest restoration and community preparedness. The 2020 wildfire season was the worst in Oregon history, with the Labor Day Fires burning 1 million acres and destroying over 4,000 homes. For weeks, dense smoke blanketed communities causing the most hazardous air quality in the world. Unfortunately, these trends have been a long time in the making, threatening communities, businesses, and our state’s ecosystems. Oregon’s wildfire mitigation and response systems are severely strained, underfunded, and desperately in need of fresh approaches to modernize our planning, mitigation, and response infrastructure.
Senate Bill 762 took this challenge head-on, with the most significant wildfire policy reforms in state history and $200 million to change how we prepare for and respond to wildfires.
Policy reform includes:
New investments in forest restoration and landscape resilience
Defensible space and building code programs
Grants to protect vulnerable populations from wildfire smoke
Workforce training
Significant increases in our wildfire response and firefighting force
Doing so will save money through strategic prevention, support communities and landscape resilience, and better prepare Oregon for a future with more frequent and volatile wildfire events.
SB 762 was part of a larger$600 million wildfire recovery and prevention package, which included a wide array of recovery investments for the people, communities, and landscapes affected by the 2020 wildfire season.
GOING BIG ON WATER
The entire state of Oregon is currently under drought declaration, and decades of delayed investment have left Oregon’s communities, businesses, agricultural industry, and fish and wildlife with an increasingly uncertain water future and decaying water infrastructure.
As with wildfire, the legislature got serious about addressing this challenge, passing a $530 million water package, which includes investments in drinking water, wastewater, and groundwater infrastructure projects across the state, and improved data and planning support to address local and regional water use needs.
One of the key investments in this package was $1.2 million to complete and begin implementing place-based water plans in the Harney-Malheur Lake, Lower John Day, Mid-Coast, and Upper Grande Ronde Basins. Place-based water planning provides an opportunity for communities to work collaboratively to understand their water resources challenges and needs and identify solutions to meet those needs. By bringing together diverse stakeholders and subject matter experts, this process enables communities to address water challenges collaboratively while reducing litigation and conflict.
With the extra support from the legislature, collaborative groups will move towards implementation within the next year by extending outreach to state and federal agencies, funders, and the public to achieve a more secure and sustainable water future in these key geographies.
COMMUNITY FORESTS GET A BOOST
For the past three years, the Arch Cape Domestic Water Supply District has been pursuing the acquisition of 1,500 acres of local forestland to deliver clean drinking water for the community and maintain the working forest in perpetuity. The proposed Arch Cape Community Forest would balance multiple uses while generating revenue to be reinvested in future infrastructure upgrades for public benefit.
To date, the project has received $3.5 million through the USDA Forest Legacy Program and $250,000 from the Clatsop County Commissioners but was still short of its goal to purchase the forest. Fortunately, legislators came through, and the project received $2 million this session to meet the federal matching obligations to finalize the acquisition.
Arch Cape wasn’t the only community forest that received funding, with the Butte Falls Community Forest Project securing $700,000 to finalize its acquisition of 400 acres of forestland surrounding the community. Protection and maintenance of the property will allow the City of Butte Falls to develop tourist interest, expand business, and reduce wildfire risks to homes.
STEPPING UP ON CLEAN ENERGY
One of the most significant environmental takeaways from this session was the passage of HB 2021, which will require the state's major utility suppliers to provide 100% clean electricity to customers by 2040 and prohibits new or expanded natural gas-fired power plants in the state. The new law makes Oregon the eighth state to commit to 100% clean electricity, with the most ambitious timeline in the country. Beyond the mandate, HB 2021 also includes a $50 million incentive program to promote energy resilience and small-scale clean energy projects that will help spread the benefits of this transition to rural communities across the state.
In a separate package, The new Rooftop Solar Incentive Fund provides $10 million, which will extend the benefits of solar and storage to residential customers, low and moderate-income customers, and low-income service providers across Oregon.
NEXT STEPS
Significant work remains in the coming months to implement these investments and complete rulemaking on the array of policy reforms that passed. Sustainable Northwest continues our work to see these policies and investments through. Beyond Oregon, we have recently turned our attention to the federal infrastructure bill, budget resolution, and annual appropriations process, which propose historic investments in natural resources, renewable energy, and climate resilience. We will provide updates on the fate of that legislation in the months ahead.
Dylan Kruse
Director of Government Affairs & Program Strategy
dkruse@sustainablenorthwest.org
