OSPIRG's Maureen Kirk

The interests of powerful lobbies like timber companies, utilities, drug companies and developers are always heard in Salem. To stand up to these and other powerful interests, OSPIRG’s professional advocacy staff bring together practical research and tough-minded advocacy to provide a voice for the public interest at the Oregon Legislature.

Here is a sample of the issues on OSPIRG’s 2007 legislative agenda. To see our full agenda and monitor our progress, please visit www.ospirg.org.

• Clean Energy for Oregon: Oregon has the resources and know-how to use renewable, homegrown energy to address our energy problems.

We support enacting a Renewable Energy Standard requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from new renewable energy sources by 2025.

We also support expanding tax credits for businesses and homeowners to save energy and transition to renewables, increasing funding for the Energy Trust of Oregon to help Oregonians install clean energy systems, and setting higher energy-efficiency standards for common appliances.

• Curbing Global Warming: Scientists agree that global warming is already affecting the Pacific Northwest. OSPIRG supports establishing a statewide program to cut global warming pollution to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and enacting power plant pollution standards so that any new plants have to meet the strictest global warming pollution standards.

• Clean Air and Water: The Willamette River is so polluted that major stretches are unsafe for fishing and swimming. We’re working to ban polluters from discharging toxic chemicals into Oregon’s rivers at levels that exceed water quality standards.

OSPIRG also supports full funding for DEQ’s 2007-2009 budget request, including funds for toxic water pollution monitoring, air quality monitoring and enforcement.

• Protect the Oregon Coast: Despite bipartisan support for keeping the coasts off-limits to oil and gas drilling, energy companies are pressing Congress for permission to drill. OSPIRG supports renewing the state moratorium on oil and gas drilling in state waters and urging Congress to maintain the moratorium protecting federal waters.

• Recycling: Oregon has long been a national leader in recycling, but declining plastics recycling and the increased volume of electronics products mean more and more trash ends up in landfills every year.

We support updating Oregon’s Bottle Bill to increase the 5-cent deposit and include all plastic bottles, as well as creating electronic waste recycling.

• Stopping Identity Theft: Identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime, and it costs consumers millions of dollars each year.

OSPIRG supports requiring data dealers to notify Oregonians if the security of their personal information has been compromised, and giving Oregonians the right to a security freeze on their credit reports.

• Health Care: Heath insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are skyrocketing. OSPIRG supports efforts to reduce the cost of health care to make it more affordable for everyone, while making sure Oregonians get safe, quality care.

• Saving Consumers Money: High fees and interest rates gouge financial consumers. OSPIRG is working to defend Oregon’s new payday loan law, and we support extending the law’s 36 percent interest rate cap to rein in other types of predatory lending.

Maureen Kirk
Executive Director