Climate & Sustainability

Goal: Minimize transportation’s negative role in climate change and prepare the ODOT network for future climate risks.

Last updated: 07/24/24

Climate change is already affecting Oregon's economy, environment, and way of life. The evidence is stark: wildfires, flooding, landslides, and other extreme weather have caused loss of life, damaged our roads, destroyed homes, and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year. We are taking action through programs dedicated to:

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation make up approximately 35% of total emissions in Oregon.
Making every mile driven clean by electrifying the transportation system, with a focus on improving access to public charging infrastructure.
Reducing the agency's carbon footprint.
Building a transportation system that is resilient and adaptable to the effects of climate change and can recover quickly from extreme weather events.

Oregon is on track to reduce emissions 60% from transportation by 2050.

ODOT, along with the Oregon Departments of Environmental Quality, Energy, and Land Conservation and Development are following the Oregon Statewide Transportation Strategy (STS) to reduce emissions by cleaning up each vehicle mile driven and reducing how often and how far people drive.
Collectively, these efforts are projected to lead to around a 60% reduction in Oregon's transportation emissions by 2050. Learn more about progress on the Oregon Transportation Emissions website.

Chart source: Oregon Transportation Emissions website

We are electrifying the transportation system to make every mile driven clean.

Electrifying our transportation system is a key strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move Oregon towards a cleaner future. ODOT's role is to fund public electric vehicle charging infrastructure; we work with private entities who own, install and maintain the infrastructure.

We also make connections between the many groups needed to build and expand Oregon's public electric transportation infrastructure, and we help set a vision for the future of public EV charging infrastructure that is equitable, reliable and meets rural and urban needs.

We have our work cut out for us. All new cars and trucks available for sale in Oregon are required to be electric by 2035. We estimate we'll need over 90,000 additional public EV charging ports to support this transition, given the expected upswing in EV adoption rates over the next decade.

According to the 2023 Transportation Needs and Issues Survey across Oregon:

3.4% of Oregonians said they drove an electric vehicle (EV) in 2023.
Among EV owners, 60% said they would drive their EV more often if the number of EV charging stations was increased.
For those who said they did not own and EV, 46% indicated they would drive an EV if more electric charging stations were available.

We are making steady progress as of 2024.

As of July 2024 we have funded the installation of more than 170 "Level 2" charging ports through the Community Charging Rebate Program with 700 more on the way. About 80 of the ports installed so far are in rural or disadvantaged communities. Source: Oregon Electric Vehicle Dashboard

We're also administering the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which is funding a network of DC fast charging stations in all 50 states. In total, we anticipate developing or upgrading about 50 fast charging stations in Oregon under the NEVI program.

We are considering the charging infrastructure needs of medium- and heavy-duty EVs, like freight and delivery trucks, and transit and school buses. We're also researching the opportunities for hydrogen fuel cell EVs, and electric micro-mobility like e-scooters, e-bikes and e-trikes.

We are working to reduce greenhouse gases that we emit from construction, road maintenance and agency operations

The Sustainability Program works with agency experts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our work. We follow our Sustainability Plan and focus on four areas: transitioning our vehicles to hybrid and electric; making our facilities more energy efficient; using low-carbon construction materials; and green public procurement.

In 2021, we inventoried greenhouse gas emissions from our work and learned some baseline statistics:

Our average carbon footprint is equivalent to about 44,000 cars driving continuously for a year.
70% of our carbon footprint comes from materials and fuels used to construct and maintain the transportation system.

Since then, we've been working to lower emissions from the fuel as we use.

As of 2021, 60% of the fuel we use was bio or renewable diesel, which emits less emissions than regular diesel.
We also own 357 vehicles that use E-85, a type of gas that burns cleaner than regular gas, and 22 hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

2021 ODOT Greenhouse Gas baseline Inventory

Other focus areas include conserving resources, such as water and energy in ODOT business and operations and efforts like the Oregon Solar Highways Program.

We are improving how we prepare, respond and recover from climate extremes

The effect of climate change — like flooding, sweltering heat, wildfires, and other extreme weather — threaten our transportation system statewide. Those threats are expected to get worse in the coming decades.

72% of the state highway system (5,954 miles) is at high risk of inland flooding by 2050.
71% of the state highway system (5,872 miles) is projected to have more frequent high heat events by 2050.
820 state highway miles are expected to be susceptible to coastal erosion by 2050.

Responding to extreme weather events and repairing the damage they cause is expensive. And costs are rising every few years.

Wildfire-related emergency road maintenance costs totaled $58.6 million from 2013-2021.
On average, we spend an additional $18 million every 5 years on wildfires, flooding, and other extreme weather events.

In contrast, the cost to proactively address risks is much lower than having to repair a road once it fails. Every $4 spent on proactive resilience saves about $25 in repairs.

We need to be proactive and prepare the transportation system to withstand climate change and extreme weather.

ODOT has developed a resilience needs priority map to guide investment decisions. The map integrates human resilience by using ODOT’s social disparity data. Click on the image above to visit an interactive GIS map and explore more data.

The Climate Adaptation and Resilience Roadmap is our proactive approach. It provides policies and strategies for making adaptation and resilience a regular part of how we invest in and maintain the multi-modal transportation system.

Visit our Climate and Sustainability website or Oregon's Transportation Emissions website to learn more

2024-2028 Strategic Actions

Annual - Fund and direct the deployment of transportation electrification public charging infrastructure.

2026 - Apply a climate lens to ODOT investment decisions, increasing investments that result in emissions reductions or infrastructure that is more resilient to climate change and extreme weather.

2026 - Reduce GHG emissions from ODOT’s fleets and buildings.

2026 - Develop passenger vehicle miles per capita reduction strategies to align with Oregon's Transportation Plan target of 20% reduction by 2050 and monitor and report on progress.

2028 - Reduce GHG emissions from materials used by ODOT.

2024 Efforts Underway

Strategic Action Plan
Dispersing the first round of funding ($1.75M) for the Community Charging Rebates program's completed project and launching the second round of funding ($2.5M). Deploying federal EV Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator grant to fix broken EV chargers. Creating a process to embed climate change considerations into our investment decisions.	Updating our facilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Expanding enrollment in community solar subscriptions. Developing strategies to reduce VMT per captia. Implementing a new state law that requires our construction materials to emit less greenhouse gas emissions.
Other Ongoing Efforts
Integrating resilience corridors into the Oregon Highway Plan update. Integrating climate change and extreme weather considerations into how we manage our roads and bridges, and into our emergency response planning.	Requiring siting, design, and development of new and reconstructed transportation infrastructure to reduce the impact on environmentally and culturally sensitive areas; enhance and avoid the degradation of the natural and cultural environment; and protect water, air, and wildlife.

2024-2028 Strategic Action Plan Outcome Area

Reduce Emissions and Electrify Oregon’s Transportation System:

We will foster a cleaner transportation system that contributes less to pollution and helps achieve Oregon’s climate goals.

Measuring Our Success:

Reduce GHG emissions from ODOT activities 20% by 2028.