It’s a clear win for environmental justice, protecting families living near busy roadways, and advancing a cleaner economy. Yet ACT is under threat. Fossil fuel companies are trying to take Oregon backward with legislation that would create years of delays on existing clean air rules.

Low-income Oregonians, people of color, disabled people, children, and elders are on the frontlines of a crisis they did not cause. They are highly likely to live near highways, ports, and industrial areas where diesel pollution is most intense. 

In Portland, Black, Brown, and Indigenous neighborhoods experience diesel pollution at rates two to three times higher than other areas. In Marion County, diesel pollution is four times higher than the state’s health benchmark. Statewide, 19 of 36 counties — from Malheur to Washington — have diesel pollution levels high enough to increase cancer risk.

And we know this burden falls heaviest on low-income communities and people of color. Diesel pollution is responsible for more than 460 early deaths in Oregon each year.

These numbers reflect actual harm. They represent children with asthma who can’t play outside without an inhaler, elders hospitalized during extreme heat caused by the climate crisis, and neighborhoods forced to live with the daily cost of inaction.

Nationally, we’ve seen a disturbing trend: federal rollbacks to environmental protections, executive orders that sideline vulnerable communities, and industry-led efforts to weaken climate action.

What’s appalling is that Oregon isn’t just failing to resist this tide — we’re starting to echo it.

When our lawmakers entertain bills that mirror federal rollbacks, they are putting our most impacted communities at even greater risk. Now is the moment to be a firewall, not a follower of diminished protections.

Environmental justice requires more than platitudes. It means centering the communities most affected, enforcing pollution standards, holding polluters accountable, and investing in clean air and climate resilience. It means treating environmental justice not as a side issue but as a pillar of social equity.

This means vehemently upholding protections like ACT, the climate protection program, and other programs we know will benefit people in environmental justice communities.

Oregon needs to be a firewall. Our leaders must act with clarity and courage. Clean air, safe neighborhoods, and a livable climate are not luxuries — they are rights.

So again, we ask: Who is showing up for Oregon’s most vulnerable communities? The answer must come in action, not excuses.