Tackling Climate Change

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, Wyden, Colleagues Press Trump Administration on Proposed Forest Research and Development Facility Closures, Demand Transparency

Portland, OR – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined their Senate colleagues in urging U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz to provide Congress with a full breakdown of the Service’s decision to potentially close up to 57 U.S. Forest Service Research and Development (R&D) Facilities, including the Portland-based Pacific

Merkley, Murkowski Continue Oversight of Restoring NSF Ocean Monitoring Systems

Washington, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) pressed the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide an update on the agency’s plans to redeploy vital Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) sensors. The bipartisan letter follows the Senators securing a commitment from NSF to pause its planned

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