The carbon pollution in our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels like oil and coal is waging a direct and unchecked assault on our farming, fishing and forests – the cornerstones of Oregon’s rural economy.
When Jeff was young, his dad worked as a millwright. He spent his childhood in Southern Oregon timber communities, where timber jobs were what put food on the table and kept roofs over folks’ head. Fires and insect infestations are already killing trees at alarming rates across the Northwest, and climate change will only make these threats to our forests worse. Other iconic Oregon industries like our coastal oyster hatcheries are threatened by ocean acidification, and fishing and farming alike are facing threats from declining snowpacks and increased drought.
Congress needs to wake up. Climate change is real, and it’s bad for our economy and jobs, especially in rural Oregon and the places that most depend on our abundant natural resources.
Merkley: Forest Service Dangerously Unprepared for Wildfire Season
Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) issued the following statement after a hearing with U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz on the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the agency: “Forest Service Chief Schultz’s testimony only underscored the immense, serious challenges facing communities
Merkley Remarks at Forest Service Budget Hearing with Chief Schultz
Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—the Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee—delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the hearing reviewing the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Forest Service with Chief Tom Schultz: Senator Merkley’s remarks, as prepared for
Merkley, Wyden: Trump’s Budget Proposal to Eliminate U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Threatens Oregon Coastal Communities
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden today sounded the alarm over the Trump Administration’s budget proposal to eliminate federal funding for the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and undermine Oregon’s coastal communities, Tribes, and maritime stakeholders that rely on this critical data and forecasts
Merkley, Wyden Fight Trump’s Illegal Gutting of ENERGY STAR Program
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined 20 of their Senate colleagues to demand the Trump Administration immediately reverse course on its plan to illegally and unilaterally terminate the ENERGY STAR program. In their letter, the Senators highlight the cost-saving benefits of the program, which
Merkley Leads Resolution Calling for a National Strategy to Defend Biodiversity
Washington, D.C. – As climate chaos intensifies, threatening more than one million species and creating an unprecedented biodiversity crisis, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley reintroduced a resolution in the Senate to establish a National Biodiversity Strategy. “The impacts of climate chaos are only becoming deadlier and more frequent, and we
Merkley to Burgum: Our Public Lands Are Not for Sale
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, released the following statement after a hearing on the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of the Interior with Secretary Doug Burgum: “Secretary Burgum testified
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