100% CLEAN ELECTRICITY
Students recently won a campaign for 100% clean electricity in Oregon. Starting in 2017, OSPIRG students collected thousands of petitions signatures, met with dozens of legislators, and testified calling for a 100% clean future. The law requires Oregon energy companies to provide their customers with 100 percent clean electricity by 2040, an ambitious deadline faster than Washington and California.
BANNING SINGLE USE PLASTICS
In 2020 we banned foam cups and takeout containers in Eugene. Foam is harming our wildlife in the Oregon coast and takes thousands of years to fully degrade. Building off our victory in the 90s now a third of Oregonians are living without foam.
HELPING STUDENTS VOTE
During the 2020 election we did hundreds of class announcements to register thousands of students and it worked! The youth vote increased and the UO won the Pac-12 Voting challenge with the most plans to vote.
TAKING CLIMATE ACTION
In 2016 we helped pass the Coal to Clean bill, which got our state to commit to get off of dirty coal energy, and to get 50% of our energy from renewable sources like solar and wind.
PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH
In 2015, students joined a national campaign that convinced Subway and McDonald’s to commit to serving all meat raised without antibiotics to protect our life saving medicines and public health. In 2017, we convinced KFC to follow suit. Now the majority of the American poultry industry is raised without routine antibiotics.
MAKING COLLEGE MORE AFFORDABLE
We helped pass the Affordable Textbooks bill which limited publishing companies’ abilities to rip students off. We also helped pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which increased federal financial aid by $36 billion.
ALLEVIATING HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS
With COVID-19 affecting our community we’ve fundraised $3,000 for Huerto De La Familia and Food for Lane County to help our neighbors struggling to make ends meet.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Every year we help 10,000 UO students take action on an issue they care about like signing a petition, lobbying or calling in to their legislator, donating to charity, or learning new information about a policy issue. Through our internship program we are training the next generation of leaders. State leaders like Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and State Rep Nancy Nathanson got their start as OSPIRG interns at UO.