We have to make it part of everything we do. Including this:

We've got to be real about this: addressing the climate crisis and its impacts absolutely belong in any discussion about infrastructure. I know plenty of people who somehow don't see how these two topics connect – most of the Senate Republicans, for example.

But here at home in Oregon, we're learning this all too well. Just weeks ago when our state hit triple-digits and beat heat records at the end of June, the Portland Streetcar actually had to cancel service because power cables were melting.

This won't be the last time something like this happens, either. This is just the beginning of the severe weather events we'll endure thanks to the climate emergency. As I write this, fire crews are working around the clock to contain the Bootleg fire, which has already burned nearly half a million acres in Oregon and hurt air quality from coast to coast. Experts warn that our infrastructure – everything from the streetcar cables to power grid capacity to the asphalt we use on our roads – just isn't ready for the effects of the climate crisis.

The truth is unavoidable (except to the most willfully ignorant or cynically manipulative) the climate emergency is very real and its impacts across the west and the rest of America are only getting more pronounced.

And unless we make addressing it part of everything we do, it's only going to get worse and worse.

As we get closer to considering the years-overdue infrastructure package, I will continue to lead the fight for policies that will sustain our nation and the planet we all call home for generations to come.

More soon,

Ron