NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, November 18, 2021
Access to cooling top priority for 2 Oregon lawmakers
By KELCIE GREGA
Oregon Capital Bureau
SA LEM — Last
s u m me r’s t r iple - d ig it
temperatures proved to be
one of the deadliest recorded
natural disasters in Oregon’s
history.
At least 96 people died
during the late June heat
wave, when temperatures
topped out at 116 degrees,
according to data the Oregon
Medical Examiner’s Office
released to Oregon Public
Broadcasting. Most of the
people who died lived alone
and did not have access to air
conditioning, according to
the report. The total amount
of heat-related deaths could
be even higher, the New York
Times reported.
This catastrophe has
pushed some state lawmak-
ers to get a head start on
policy to address citizens’
rights to “coolness.”
Both Sen. Kayse Jama and
Rep. Pam Marsh are working
on two complementary bills
to provide Oregonians better
access to cooling during peri-
ods of extreme heat.
“We as lawmakers have
a responsibility to carefully
analyze how people are being
impacted by extreme heat
and take action to protect
those who are least likely to
survive,” Jama told Pamplin
Media Group.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A motorcyclist rides along Airport Road in Pendleton on June 24, 2021, as heat waves shine
across the surface. Two state lawmakers are working on bills to provide Oregonians better
access to cooling during periods of extreme heat.
Jama’s bill would tackle
the barriers renters face in
installing portable AC units
in their homes.
Air conditioning units
aren’t commonplace in apart-
ments in the Willamette
Valley due to its historically
mild climate.
While there is statutory
language laying out what
landlords are required to do
to keep a property “habit-
able,” there are no references
to keeping a dwelling “cool.”
Landlords are even allowed
to prohibit tenants from
installing their own portable
AC units.
“If you’re someone with a
disability and you’re asking
for an accommodation, that’s
really the only way you could
get air conditioning and
many people don’t under-
stand their rights sufficiently
to understand that they can
make that kind of request,
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
| Go to AccuWeather.com
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said said Kim McCarty, exec-
utive director of the Commu-
nity Alliance of Tenants. “So
essentially the law does not
allow it, and so most Orego-
nians at this point just don’t
have that as an option.”
The issue came up last
August when proper ty
owners in Beaverton told
tenants to remove their porta-
ble AC units while a state of
emergency of the heat was
still in effect. That prompted
Mayor Lacey Beaty to step in
and ask local landlords and
property owners to ease up
on AC restrictions.
Jama, a Northeast Port-
land Democrat who was
appointed to a Senate seat
representing a swath of outer
east Portland and suburban
Clackamas County in Janu-
ary, hopes his bill will ensure
things don’t have to go that
far again.
“Everybody deserves
to live in a healthy and safe
home,” he said. “Blanket
prohibitions on lifesaving
air conditioning should never
be allowed, and the range of
technology available means
that there are safe options for
different types of housing.”
Barriers in affordability
are something Jama hopes to
address as well.
“Even if someone is
allowed to install an air
conditioning unit, demand
spikes for them when the
weather forecasts an extreme
heat event and prices are
prohibitive for some low-in-
come families,” Jama said.
“That’s why state action to
ensure tenants’ right to cool-
ing pairs well with programs
like the Portland Clean
Energy Community Bene-
fits Fund’s rapid response
program for delivering cool-
ing units to those who cannot
afford them.”
Additionally, Jama’s bill
OSU researchers aim to turn seafood
byproducts into source of nutrition
program director with the
Foundation for Food and
Agriculture Research, or
ASTORIA — A research FFAR.
project led by Oregon State
Funding comes from the
University has the poten- foundation’s Seeding Solu-
tial to reduce food waste by tions program, address-
utilizing seafood byprod- ing challenges in food
ucts as a cheap, high-quality supply and agro-ecosystem
management.
source of protein.
OSU received a
The Alaska
$333,777 grant from
Seafood Market-
the Foundation for
ing Institute, Pacific
Food and Agriculture
Se afood G roup,
Research to study
S e a fo o d I n d u s -
try Research Fund,
whether protein from
byproducts such as
Trident Seafoods and
West Coast Seafood
fish heads, bones
Kwon
Processors Associa-
and skin left over
after processing can
tion are project part-
be recovered and used as an ners and provided matching
ingredient in food or dietary funds.
Jung Kwon, an associate
supplements.
The seafood indus- professor at OSU’s Seafood
try uses just 30-40% of Research and Education
what it harvests for human Center in Astoria, is head-
consumption, while the rest ing up the multi-year project.
is either made into fishmeal The research will be broken
or discarded in landfills.
into phases, she said.
“This research exempli-
First, researchers will
fies a ‘no stone unturned’ determine the best and most
approach to increasing efficient ways to extract
global food and nutritional protein from seafood byprod-
security through limiting ucts, focusing specifically
food waste,” said Lucyna on two fisheries — Alaska
Kurtyka, senior scientific pollock and Pacific whiting.
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Cloudy, chilly; a
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SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
49/38
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
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would require landlords
to maintain safe indoor air
temperatures in at least one
portion of the property. He
said the details of that portion
of the bill are still being
worked out.
Meanwhile, Marsh —
an Ashland Democrat — is
working on a bill through the
Committee on Environment
Natural and Resources that
would give citizens better
access to cooling infrastruc-
ture.
“(The bills) are comple-
mentar y but different
approaches to the fact that
we had a summer in which
people died,” said Marsh,
who also saw wildfires
fueled by unusually hot and
dry conditions tear through
communities in her district,
like Phoenix and Talent, in
September 2020. Thousands
were displaced by those fires.
Marsh added, “As we
see temperatures steadily
increasing, we have an obli-
gation to go out, probably for
the first time in our state’s
history, and help people
figure out the necessity of
having cooling devices.”
Marsh’s bill focuses on
both emergency air condi-
tioning deployment in the
short term, as well as estab-
lishing a heat pump deploy-
ment program through the
Oregon Department of
Energy.
Pacific Seafood Group, based
in Clackamas, and Trident
Seafoods, based in Seattle,
are providing samples.
After extracting the
protein, Kwon said they will
assess its nutritional content
compared to other common
supplements, such as whey.
Then the project will pivot
to developing prototype food
products and supplements
using the protein, based on
feedback from consumer
panels.
If successful, Kwon said
the project will create a plat-
form for solving global food
insecurity in an environmen-
tally sustainable way.
According to the FFAR,
an additional 148 million
people may be protein defi-
cient by 2050 due to climate
change.
“The success of the
proposed project will push
forward the notion of a
sustainable food system to
the next level,” Kwon said.
Kwon said the project also
could have a big impact on
the seafood industry, giving
processors a high-value
market for what has been a
low-value waste product.
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Kingsville, Texas Low 2° in Butte, Mont.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Five nonprofits receive grants
from Oregon Humanities
PORTLAND — Five nonprofits — four
in Wallowa County and one in Union County
— were among 60 statewide to receive
COVID-19 Emergency SHARP grants from
Oregon Humanities, the organization recently
announced.
In all, Oregon Humanities awarded more
than $700,000 in grants. The funding was
part of more than $51 million in emergency
relief funding distributed to state and juris-
dictional humanities councils, with the
money’s intent to “support local cultural
groups and public and educations human-
ities programming adversely affected by the
coronavirus pandemic.”
The funding was part of the American
Rescue Plan Act.
The funding is intended to help the human-
ities community recover from the pandemic
and enable reopening. Applicants were to
share how they were adversely impacted by
the pandemic, their need for funding and how
funding would support their work.
Art Center East, La Grande, received
$19,800, the most of the five granted in the
two counties. The organizations to receive
funding in Wallowa County include the
Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center and the
Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive
Center, which were each granted $15,000; the
Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, which
was granted $12,500; and Fishtrap, which was
granted $10,000.
— EO Media Group
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