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, Pingree: EPA’s Reckless Gutting of Environmental Justice Programs Harms Communities

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (ME-01) denounced plans by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to eliminate all of the agency’s offices and positions related to environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Merkley and Colleagues to EPA Administrator Zeldin: Agency Must Reverse Unlawful Termination of Grants for Clean Air and Water

New documents reveal 400 grantees are being illegally targeted for termination and expose EPA’s willful violation of congressional appropriations law, contractual agreements, and multiple court orders Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee—joined all his Democratic colleagues on

Merkley, Reed, Grijalva, Huffman, Casten to Energy Secretary Wright: New LNG Exports Hurt American Households and Businesses

Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Rhode Island’s U.S. Senator Jack Reed, U.S. Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), and Sean Casten (D-IL-06) led 40 Members of Congress to demand that recently confirmed U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright deny export authorizations for new liquified natural gas (LNG) exports

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