Sunday Oregonian LTE: “Legislators must prioritize climate”

Climate action hero Brian Ettling from SE Portland published this LTE in the Sunday Oregonian on March 15.

Legislators must prioritize climate

Thank you to The Oregonian/ OregonLive for covering climate issues in the recent legislative session, (“Key climate, energy bills fail to advance in legislative session,”March 6).

As a volunteer with Oregon League of Conservation Voters, I was very disappointed with the failure of Oregon legislators to pass effective climate policies during the 2026 legislative session. I applaud legislators for the exception – passing an increase in the lodging tax to protect wild-life.

Locally, in Oregon, the climate alarm bells are ringing as climate change shows more of an impact on our weather. In December 2025, record rainfalls from ‘atmospheric river’ weather conditions brought flooding to the Portland area.

So far in 2026, the opposite has happened – Oregon experienced very little rain or snow. We are now projected to have a record low snowpack for this winter. Sunday’s edition reported our early spring. (“Oregon’s spring arrived a month early and the signs are everywhere from the Sandy to the sea Bill Monroe, ” March 7). We hope and pray we don’t have a bad fire season due to these influences on our weather from climate change.

I am grateful for Sen. Khanh Pham for being a chief sponsor of the “Climate Super-fund” bill, Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald for her plug-in solar bill, Sen. Jeff Golden for his inclusive utility investments bill, and Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin for her distributed power plant bill. Besides these leg-islators, we need more legislators to bravely step forward in 2027 to pass these bills and reduce the threat of climate change.