Meet Michael Dembrow (Candidate for House District 45 endorsed by OLCV)
I’m proud to be among the many, many Oregonians who recognize
the importance of protecting our environment and being good stewards of the
natural resources of this wonderful state. As a candidate for State Representative in HD45, I’m looking forward to advocating
in the Legislature for conservation, environmental protections, and sustainable
practices.
It can sometimes be a challenge to convince others of how crucial some of these issues are. As a labor leader, I’ve been able to talk to many of my union brothers and sisters and explain to them that this is not a zero-sum game: It is possible to grow our economy while safeguarding our natural resources and quality of life. Oregon has been a leader on environmental issues, and we have a chance to be a leader in growing “green” business and seeing “green-collar” jobs flourish here.
This year’s Oregon AFL-CIO convention passed two historic resolutions that I wrote, one requiring LEED standards for education construction, the other promoting sustainability through support of the Apollo Alliance (the national effort bringing together environmentalists, unionists, and social-justice activists). I see my role in the Legislature to be a similar one: bringing together advocates for labor, for the environment, and for social/environmental justice and working to forge productive alliances.
It’s clear that as a society we’ve ignored some problems for far too long. Fighting global warming needs to be a top priority, and it needs to be an immediate priority. The 2007 Oregon Legislature passed some great environmental legislation, including some good requirements for greenhouse gas emission reductions. But there is much more that we need to do, and we need to do it now. We must resist the political tendency to make promises and put off action until later.
The Legislature needs to provide the leadership and oversight to make sure that environmental regulations are enforced and that as a state we are making progress toward reducing our carbon footprint.
I’m proud to be endorsed by the Oregon League of Conservation voters, and I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with environmentalists inside and outside of the Legislature as a positive force for the state and for the planet.
Comments