KEEPING ROADLESS AREAS ROADLESS—Nearly 2 million acres of Oregon’s last remaining pristine National Forests are protected under the widely popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Photo: USFWS

Protections For National Forests Restored
Oregonians saw a major environmental victory last fall when a federal judge agreed with a coalition of environmental advocacy groups and states that the Bush administration had violated federal
environmental laws by repealing protections for pristine national forest lands without considering negative environmental impacts.

The protections—known as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule— stopped logging, road building, mining and oil and gas drilling in nearly 60 million acres of national forests.

This included nearly 2 million acres in Oregon, in places such as the Mt. Hood and Willamette National Forests.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who made Oregon a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was among the first governors in the nation to stand up to powerful special interests and urge the Bush administration to retain protections.

The protections ensure that Oregon’s forests will continue to provide clean drinking water, opportunities for recreation, and habitat for wildlife.

Pacific Power Proposes Coal Plants
As this newsletter went to print, a decision was pending at the Oregon Public Utility Commission on a proposal by Pacific Power for a fleet of new coal-fired power plants.

Pacific Power, Oregon’s second largest utility, is planning to build a fleet of new coal-fired power plants in Utah or Wyoming and charge Oregon ratepayers for one-quarter of the cost.

The company originally proposed four plants, but in response to opposition by a coalition including OSPIRG, the consumer advocate Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, it reduced its proposal to two.

The two new coal plants proposed would represent an 11 percent increase in Pacific Power’s global warming pollution and a 6 percent increase in total pollution from Oregon’s electric power companies.

Scientists have already linked global warming pollution to rising sea levels, increasing rain, and declining snowpack in the Northwest, and say pollution cuts of at least 20 percent by 2020 will be necessary to stabilize the climate.

Oregon To Decide On Mercury Limits
As this newsletter went to print, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission, the citizen board that regulates air and water quality, was poised to require PGE’s Boardman coal plant to cut mercury pollution 90 percent by the year 2012.

Nationally, coal-fired power plants are the largest unregulated source of mercury, a potent toxin that contaminates waterways and the fish we eat.

OSPIRG worked with Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center and Friends of the Columbia Gorge to convince regulators to consider strict pollution limits for PGE’s coal plant.

Oregon Plastics Recycling Declines
Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality reported in December that recycling rates for plastic containers like drink bottles dipped below 25 percent for the first time since the 1990s.

Oregonians have long demonstrated some of the nation’s highest recycling rates largely due to the state’s Bottle Bill, which established the refundable 5-cent deposit on many drink containers.

Plastic containers for un-carbonated drinks have long had significantly lower recycling rates because the Bottle Bill, passed in 1971, does not include these containers.

State Rep. Vicki Berger (Salem) has proposed the most common-sense solution to this problem: she wants the Legislature to update the Bottle Bill to include all plastic beverage containers, and increase the deposit amount.

OSPIRG Calls For Lobby Reform
With news of powerful industry lobbyists paying for travel and other perks for public officials, OSPIRG called for the Legislature to enact lobby reform. “There’s just too much big money in Oregon politics,” said Laura Etherton, “It’s time for reform to bring politics back to the public.”

OSPIRG is advocating a ban on lobbyists funding trips, entertainment and meals; stronger limits on conflicts of interest; and giving the state’s ethics commission the independent resources needed to investigate violations.