Surfrider’s Oregon Policy Manager is Charlie Plybon who manages state legislative affairs, campaigns and Oregon delegation engagement in federal issues. This page is used as a clearing house for actions and engagement in the state legislative session, primarily those related to official Surfrider campaigns. For a number of reasons, we do not publicize all of our legislative activity that we support outside of official campaigns, particularly those related to major threats.
Surfrider Current Actions Oregon 2023 Legislative Session:
*Surfrider Oregon Lobby Days is Coming 03/14-16 – reach out to cplybon@surfrider.org for more info!
Ocean Protection
Marine Reserves: HB 2903 – This bill is related to the decadal review of Oregon’s marine reserves and protected areas and has been a major campaign of the Surfrider Oregon network. Learn more about the 10 year success of Oregon’s marine reserve and protected areas.
Current Status: Passed the House Committee on Ag., Land Use, Natural Resources and Water on 03/02! Now awaiting hearing in Ways and Means Natural Resource subcommittee – office outreach needed!
Take Action: Budget threat! The Governor’s budget cut a critical position and we need Ways & Means outreach! Send your legislator a digital postcard!
Resources: Marine reserve 1-pagers, FAQ – full toolkit
Plastic Pollution
Exciting news! Senate Bill 545 just passed the Oregon Senate on 03/15 with a vote of 19-8. You can see the vote count here. Congrats to everyone that came out and supported our Rise Above Plastic Pollution Day on 03/14.
Foam Foodware: SB 543 – A longstanding Surfrider campaign and evolving policy that we’ve introduced for many years with our partners in Oregon, this bill would prohibit polystyrene (foam) in certain foodware and other products.
Current Status: Passed the Senate Energy and Environment committee unanimously on 03/23! Will head to the Senate floor the week of 03/27!
Resources: 1-pagers background
Legalize Reusables: SB 545 – Surfrider launched our Clean up the Code campaign as an effort to promote reusables within Oregon’s health code. Our campaign has been successful on the path for a rule change for Oregon retail, but the bill is necessary to bring restaurants up to speed as well, which operate under a different code.
Current Status: Passed the Senate Floor 03/15! You can see the vote count here. We’re off to the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment.
Resources: 1-pagers background
25% Single Use Plastic Reduction: SB 544 – While not an official Surfrider campaign this is an important bill we are supporting! The bill takes an important step at setting a goal and target for reducing single use plastic packaging and foodware – 25% by 2030.
Current Status: Dead – was not scheduled for a work session before deadlines. Bill received a public hearing on 02/14 in Senate and Energy and Environment Committee watch here.
Resources: 1-pagers background
Right to Repair SB 542: While not an official Surfrider campaign this is another important bill we are supporting! The bill takes and important step in reducing e-waste by giving Oregonians access to the tools and diagnostics to fix our stuff!
Current Status: Work Session Scheduled in Senate Energy and Environment 03/28.
Resources: 1-pagers background
Beach Access
Lighthouse Beach HB 2172: A major Surfrider campaign, this bill relates to our ongoing advocacy to restore beach access at Lighthouse Beach. While our primary strategy remains in litigation, we are constantly exploring new opportunities to restore this important access
Current Status: TBD, not currently scheduled, will likely die on 03/17 at deadline.
Coasts and Climate
Beach Mitigation LC 1068: Surfrider developed a legislative concept during the 2022 interim to introduce this legislative session to address mitigation of erosion for Oregon’s beaches. The concept was not introduced this session due to the necessity to further educate coastal legislators on the problems and appropriate solutions to protect Oregon’s shrinking beaches in the wake of SLR, erosion and increasing coastal hazards related to climate change.