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GoGreenNation news

Former lawmaker Brian Clem to spend $1 million to elect moderate Democrats to Oregon Legislature

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Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Former Democratic lawmaker Brian Clem of Salem is preparing to spend $1 million to elect centrist Democrats to the Legislature, campaign finance filings show.He gave that sum Sunday to a political action committee he created in 2022 to carry out that aim. The contribution is the second largest in Oregon this year, behind the $2 million that Nike co-founder Phil Knight gave to a Republican-aligned political action committee last month.Clem, who served in the Oregon House from 2007 to 2021, formed Oregonians Are Ready to elect moderate lawmakers to the Legislature. Five other former lawmakers joined in that effort, but Clem has contributed about 85% of the money the PAC has taken in.Clem told The Oregonian/OregonLive Tuesday that one of the first candidates to receive a portion of the $1 million will be Peter Grabiel, an environmental lawyer and Democrat vying to represent Portland’s west side in the Oregon House.The committee gave Grabiel $5,000 last week, campaign finance filings show, but Clem said in a text, “We are just getting started for Pete. We will definitely be making sure he has the resources he needs to run a competitive race.”The group also gave Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, $5,000 in February. Clem didn’t say what other candidates the committee intends to support.“Our group will be making decisions in the coming days,” Clem said. “This spending will be focused on candidates in this election cycle and we are looking to support common sense problem solvers.”Grabiel is competing against doctor Brian Duty and health care clinic CEO Shannon Jones Isadore in the May 21 Democratic primary for House District 33, a seat currently held by Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is running for Congress. Whoever wins the primary is expected to coast to victory in November, as registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans more than seven-to-one in the district.As of Tuesday, Duty has raised about $96,000, Grabiel has raised $73,000 and Isadore has brought in $15,100, campaign finance filings show.Grabiel told The Oregonian/OregonLive he was not expecting financial backing from Clem’s political committee, but said it makes sense because he’s “willing to moderate from the standard line of things that far left Democrats want to see.”“I know that [Clem] wants to see more pragmatism come out of Portland,” Grabiel said. “He knows that I’m a pragmatic liberal Democrat that shares that value with him, and he thinks that I can be a breakthrough where others have not been.”For example, Grabiel said, he was the only Democratic candidate in his race who spoke in favor of rolling back Measure 110, Oregon’s landmark drug decriminalization law, before this year’s legislative session.“That was a moderate position, that was a risky position to take,” Grabiel said. “For months, I was alone in this position, which is now a mainstream position in the party. I believe taking this moderate position caused a number of left leaning special interest groups to refuse to endorse me.”— Carlos Fuentes covers state politics and government. Reach him at 503-221-5386 or cfuentes@oregonian.com.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.

The contribution is the second largest in Oregon this year.

Former Democratic lawmaker Brian Clem of Salem is preparing to spend $1 million to elect centrist Democrats to the Legislature, campaign finance filings show.

He gave that sum Sunday to a political action committee he created in 2022 to carry out that aim. The contribution is the second largest in Oregon this year, behind the $2 million that Nike co-founder Phil Knight gave to a Republican-aligned political action committee last month.

Clem, who served in the Oregon House from 2007 to 2021, formed Oregonians Are Ready to elect moderate lawmakers to the Legislature. Five other former lawmakers joined in that effort, but Clem has contributed about 85% of the money the PAC has taken in.

Clem told The Oregonian/OregonLive Tuesday that one of the first candidates to receive a portion of the $1 million will be Peter Grabiel, an environmental lawyer and Democrat vying to represent Portland’s west side in the Oregon House.

The committee gave Grabiel $5,000 last week, campaign finance filings show, but Clem said in a text, “We are just getting started for Pete. We will definitely be making sure he has the resources he needs to run a competitive race.”

The group also gave Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, $5,000 in February. Clem didn’t say what other candidates the committee intends to support.

“Our group will be making decisions in the coming days,” Clem said. “This spending will be focused on candidates in this election cycle and we are looking to support common sense problem solvers.”

Grabiel is competing against doctor Brian Duty and health care clinic CEO Shannon Jones Isadore in the May 21 Democratic primary for House District 33, a seat currently held by Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is running for Congress. Whoever wins the primary is expected to coast to victory in November, as registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans more than seven-to-one in the district.

As of Tuesday, Duty has raised about $96,000, Grabiel has raised $73,000 and Isadore has brought in $15,100, campaign finance filings show.

Grabiel told The Oregonian/OregonLive he was not expecting financial backing from Clem’s political committee, but said it makes sense because he’s “willing to moderate from the standard line of things that far left Democrats want to see.”

“I know that [Clem] wants to see more pragmatism come out of Portland,” Grabiel said. “He knows that I’m a pragmatic liberal Democrat that shares that value with him, and he thinks that I can be a breakthrough where others have not been.”

For example, Grabiel said, he was the only Democratic candidate in his race who spoke in favor of rolling back Measure 110, Oregon’s landmark drug decriminalization law, before this year’s legislative session.

“That was a moderate position, that was a risky position to take,” Grabiel said. “For months, I was alone in this position, which is now a mainstream position in the party. I believe taking this moderate position caused a number of left leaning special interest groups to refuse to endorse me.”

— Carlos Fuentes covers state politics and government. Reach him at 503-221-5386 or cfuentes@oregonian.com.

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.

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Nearly 90 percent of EPA furloughed as government shuts down

About 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) workforce is being furloughed as the government shuts down, according to contingency plans that were posted online this week. According to the plan, just 1,734 of the EPA’s 15,166 employees are slated to continue working during the shutdown, which began Wednesday. The plan also gives a window...

About 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) workforce is being furloughed as the government shuts down, according to contingency plans that were posted online this week. According to the plan, just 1,734 of the EPA’s 15,166 employees are slated to continue working during the shutdown, which began Wednesday. The plan also gives a window into the degree of staffing losses at the EPA in recent months, as the agency had 17,080 employees at the start of the year.  During the furlough period, the agency will no longer carry out most civil inspections related to potential violations of environmental law.  It will also no longer conduct most of its research or issue new permits or grants. Some hazardous waste cleanup will be halted if there is no imminent threat to human health and property. The EPA will still continue emergency and disaster assistance, hazardous waste cleanup where there is an “imminent threat to human life" and criminal investigations. The Trump administration’s plan is similar to the most recent contingency plan issued by the Biden administration in September 2024. Under that plan, 1,734 employees out of 16,851 would have been expected to continue working. Under the Biden-era plan, civil inspections, issuance of new grants and permits, research and some hazardous waste cleanup also would have ceased. Marc Boom, a former EPA senior policy adviser during the Biden administration, said during a press call ahead of the shutdown that if one occurs “nobody will be holding polluters accountable for what they dump into the air we breathe and the water that we drink.” But Boom also said the Trump administration is making the problem worse. “Over the past 9 months, the White House and EPA leadership have already been shutting down the agency from within,” he said. “They've clawed back hundreds of community grants, rolled back protections against forever chemicals and pesticides, relaxed enforcement for polluters … and they've shuttered key programs like the Environmental Justice Office, the Office of Atmospheric Protection and now, they're closing down EPA's scientific backbone, the Office of Research and Development.” The EPA has said that its actions are in support of a deregulatory agenda that seeks to boost the U.S. economy.

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What is fracking and why is it controversial?

The government says it plans to pass legislation to permanently ban fracking for shale gas in England.

What is fracking and why is it controversial?Esme StallardClimate and science reporter, BBC NewsGetty ImagesThe government says it plans to pass legislation to permanently ban fracking for shale gas in England.A moratorium on the practice was put in place by the last government but the debate has been reopened in recent weeks after the political party Reform committed to backing fracking if it came to power.The Scottish and Welsh governments continue to remain opposed to the practise. What is fracking?Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock. It involves drilling into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals at a rock layer, to release the gas inside.Wells can be drilled vertically or horizontally in order to release the gas.Why is fracking controversial?The injection of fluid at high pressure into the rock can cause earth tremors - small movements in the earth's surface.In 2019, more than 120 tremors were recorded during drilling at a Cuadrilla site in Blackpool.Seismic events of this scale are considered minor and are rarely felt by people, but they are a concern to local residents.Shale gas is also a fossil fuel, and campaigners say allowing fracking could distract energy firms and governments from investing in renewable and green sources of energy.Fracking also uses huge amounts of water, which must be transported to the site at significant environmental cost.What has the government said about fracking?Government policy on fracking has see-sawed over recent years. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss looked to reintroduce the practice, despite local opposition - but this was subsequently reversed by Rishi Sunak who introduced a moratorium.In October 2025, at the Labour Party Conference, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the government would move to legislate against fracking, banning the practice permanently. This follows a commitment made by the Labour Party in its manifesto and further commitments by PM Sir Keir Starmer in September that the practice would be "banned for good".But Reform has said it would seek to allow the practice should it be elected, as part of its "war" on renewable developers.In his speech at the conference, Miliband said the practice was: "Dangerous and deeply harmful to our natural environment."The good news is that communities have fought back and won this fight before and will do so again," he added.ReutersAn anti-fracking protester writes messages on a wall in LancashireWhere has fracking taken place in the UK?Fracking for shale gas in the UK has only previously taken place on a small scale, due to the many public and legal challenges.However, exploration has identified large swathes of shale gas across the UK, particularly in northern England.More than 100 exploration and drilling licences were awarded to firms including Third Energy, IGas, Aurora Energy Resources and Ineos.Cuadrilla was the only company given consent to begin fracking.It drilled two wells at a site in Lancashire but faced repeated protests from local people and campaigners.In 2022, the Oil and Gas Authority told Cuadrilla to permanently concrete and abandon the wells.Could fracking lower energy bills?The UK can only meet 48% of its gas demand from domestic supplies (this would be 54% if it did not export any gas).Some MPs have claimed that restarting drilling at Cuadrilla's two existing wells could be done quickly, and would provide significant supplies.Cuadrilla claimed that "just 10%" of the gas from shale deposits in Lancashire and surrounding areas "could supply 50 years' worth of current UK gas demand".Energy experts dispute this, pointing out that the UK's shale gas reserves are held in complex layers of rock.Mike Bradshaw, professor of global energy at Warwick University, says estimates of how much shale gas the UK has are not the same as the amount of gas that could be produced commercially.But Prof Geoffrey Maitland, professor of Energy Engineering at Imperial College London, has said fracking could provide interim relief."Although shale gas will not provide an immediate solution to the energy security of the country, it could be used in the medium term to replace diminishing North Sea gas production and some gas imports," he said.Which other countries use fracking?It is thought that fracking has given energy security to the US and Canada for the next 100 years, and has presented an opportunity to generate electricity at half the CO2 emissions of coal.But the complex geology of the UK and the higher density of people makes extraction more challenging, according to experts.Fracking remains banned in numerous EU countries, including Germany, France and Spain, as well as Australia.Authorities in countries including Brazil and Argentina are split, with some banning the practice, and others allowing operations.

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Government shutdown means 90% of EPA staff won't be working

The EPA will pause research work, grants, permits and inspections while the government is shut down. Nearly all staff will stop working. Some may not be rehired.

The shutdown of the U.S. government could have ripple effects for human health and the environment as an already weakened Environmental Protection Agency will see nearly all of its staff furloughed and many of its operations paused. The first shutdown in six years went into effect late Tuesday and requires federal agencies to stop all nonessential work. Most EPA work is considered only partially essential under federal rules. Nearly 90% of EPA staff will be furloughed; only 1,732 of 15,166 employees will report to work, according to the agency’s most recent shutdown contingency plan, issued in September.Immediate environmental hazard work is likely to continue, but longer-term efforts such as research, permitting, writing new rules and pollution enforcement will largely freeze. Experts note that the shutdown comes as the agency already has seen significant cuts as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to restructure the federal government and save taxpayers money. 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At sites where stopping would pose an imminent threat to human life, work will continue, but at others, it will pause, according to the agency.Preparing for, preventing and responding to environmental disasters such as oil spills and chemical releases, known as emergency response readiness operations, will not stop. Freezers, animals, plants and other assets in research labs will continue to be maintained. In a statement to The Times before the shutdown, EPA officials blamed Democrats for the quagmire and said the agency will continue to strive to meet its mission. The impasse came as Democrats demanded healthcare provisions in the budget while Republicans pushed for a short-term budget extension without policy changes.“Congressional Democrats are not only unwilling to vote for a clean funding bill, but their goal is to inflict as much pain on the American people as possible,” the EPA said. “Americans made their voices heard last November; Democrats must respect the will of the people. ... 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How a government shutdown impacts the EPA's mission to protect America's health

The Environmental Protection Agency faces challenges during a government shutdown. The agency's mission to protect health and the environment is at risk without a federal budget.

The Environmental Protection Agency faces challenges during a government shutdown. The agency's mission to protect health and the environment is at risk without a federal budget.

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Although Congress has passed bipartisan funding bills that maintain science funding for specific agencies, the president and the director of the budget office have described plans for layoffs that could thwart those efforts.By Dylan Baddour, Marianne LavelleA government shutdown will likely lead to further dismantling of federal environmental science, enforcement and conservation agencies, advocates warned this week. 

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