Oregon’s 2025 legislative session: Wins, setbacks and the fight ahead
Already in 2025, record-breaking heat has closed schools, wildfires have burned over 20,000 acres, and 56 families have lost their homes to fire. United and determined, thousands of Oregonians stood up and spoke out for climate justice during the legislative session. Day after day we brought urgency to the capitol, but despite our best efforts the Legislature did not meet the moment.
The constant toll of the climate crisis should motivate lawmakers to act. But political turmoil caused by a hostile federal government and a severe budget crisis overshadowed our needs. Despite these challenges, we secured some hard-fought wins.
Our deepest thanks go out to all the people who joined us and stepped up and those legislators who championed our issues.
This year’s wins for climate justice
We made progress on energy, water, and farmworker justice for Oregonians:
FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179), a bipartisan bill that will help prevent big price hikes, limit utility companies to raising rates only once every three years, and ban winter rate increases.
Renters and wellwater rights (HB 3525), another bipartisan bill that requires landlords to test well water for harmful chemicals and share the results with tenants.
Toxic-Free Schools (HB 2684), led by OJTA member Beyond Toxics, will reduce harmful chemicals in schools.
Groundwater Management Modernization Act (SB 1154) updates Oregon’s groundwater law to help agencies work together, involve communities, and prevent pollution before it starts.
Farmworker Disaster Relief (HB 3139) secured $2 million in funding to help farmworkers affected by heat, smoke, and disasters who don’t qualify for unemployment.
The ongoing fight for climate, safety, and justice in Oregon
Our work is far from over. Here are the areas where we worked hard and will keep pushing for action:
Transportation: After months of effort, lawmakers failed to act to reduce crashes, save lives, lower pollution, and stabilize transit so that people can get to work, school, and the doctor. As part of the Move Oregon Forward coalition, we will not stop until we win on transportation.
Energy costs (SB 88 and HB 3081): We will keep working to make energy upgrades more affordable, lower rates, and stop large, for-profit utilities from making us pay for their lobbyists, lawyers, and ad campaigns.
Food for All Oregonians (SB 611): Oregonians take care of each other, and we are committed to making sure everyone in Oregon has access to food, regardless of immigration status.
Full funding for existing climate resilience programs: We’re deeply disappointed the Legislature didn’t fund crucial programs that install heat pumps and support local community resilience projects to protect our communities as we face worsening heat, wildfires, and economic hardship.
Community power in action
Our community voice continues to get louder and louder in the statehouse:
We helped drive over 2000 emails to legislators across our legislative priorities.
We held 2 advocacy days at the Oregon State Capitol, with 217 participants holding 97 meetings with legislators.
We’re deeply grateful to our coalition partners and community members who stood with us for transportation justice this session. Through our Transportation Justice Leadership Institute (TJLI), community members, many of whom do not speak English, learned how to advocate for what they wanted to see in this year’s transportation package. Their voices and courage brought new perspectives to the capitol, pushing the conversation toward justice, care, and liberation.
TJLI is a leadership program where people gain advocacy skills and build collective power. It’s a project of OJTA and Verde, and is supported by members Adelante Mujeres, Hood River Latino Network, and Rogue Climate.
Join us in the fight for a Just Transition
If this work was easy, we would be done already. But it’s not. That’s why we work together, learning and teaching and building the movement that will win a more just future. The 2025 legislative session was one of the hardest we’ve seen, but that didn’t stop us from building power and making progress. Your participation and your support makes it all happen. As we gear up to tackle our unfinished business, you can lend a hand with a donation of any amount.
The future we want will not happen without us. Onward.
