our focus areas

Currently, our work is centered around: 

1. A just energy transition

2. Labor movement resurgence

3. Democratic freedoms

4. Cross-movement solidarity

our project & partners

Building Electrification: Breach advocates for local policies to spark a just energy transition in Oregon's buildings, holding gas utilities publicly accountable for their greenwashing, political influence, and misinformation about methane gas. Breach is one of the core partners advancing the Eugene Clean Energy Fund.

Stop Zenith Oil & the CEI Hub: Breach works with neighborhood organizations, nonprofits, and elected officials to stop Zenith Energy's expansion and drive down fossil fuel infrastructure in Portland's Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub.

Worker Power for the Common Good: Breach staff elected into leadership roles at our union Local, CWA 7901, are unionizing workplaces, negotiating progressive contracts, and integrating labor into climate and environmental justice advocacy.

Protect the Protest: Breach leads communications for Protect the Protest: a coalition dedicated to protecting the free speech of public interest advocates in the United States.

No Immunity for Big Oil: Breach leads Oregon in the national campaign to oppose immunity for Big Oil, as the fossil fuel industry lobbies Congress for total legal immunity from any climate laws or lawsuits that could hold them accountable.

Movement Education: Breach provides education courses for activists, organizers, storytellers, attorneys, and other members of the communities we partner with.

Internal Accountability: We hold ourselves accountable to dismantling racial, gender, and other oppressive dynamics in our workplace and our work.

Organize Your Organization!: We collaborate with staff at our union, Communications Workers of America, on Organize Your Organization! This Breach initiative provides education, resources, and support for nonprofit workers interested in unionizing their workplaces.

Breach in the press

2026

• “We’re seeing this larger effort for blanket immunity for these corporate entities, and I think that’s very dangerous.” - Caitlin Howard in Inside Climate News, 3/14/2026

• Activists push for clean energy tax in Eugene, modeled on Portland’s cash‑rich fund, The Oregonian, 2/24/2026

• “The Eugene Clean Energy Fund is an opportunity for our community to live up to our climate goals and invest in our community. By making billion-dollar companies pay their fair share, we can increase resilience, we can develop comprehensive energy efficiency programs, support local businesses, create good clean energy jobs, and more.” - Aya Cockram on OPB, 2/23/2026

2025

• “No matter who owns this facility, Portlanders will continue to fight the expansion of dangerous liquid fuel storage on this site.” - Nick Caleb in The Oregonian, 12/16/2025

• “We don’t believe that continually adding risks to the community and environment from storing increasing amounts of renewable fuels in NW Portland is worth the tradeoffs of, in the best case scenario, modest carbon emissions reductions.” - Nick Caleb in The Oregonian, 10/29/2025

• “To me, it feels kind of like an admission that it was all bullshit the whole time.” - Nick Caleb in Portland Mercury, 9/11/2025

• “They have an implicit trust of law enforcement, and I think that’s where the difference is between a lot of the constituencies—especially in Portland, where people have dealt directly with law enforcement a lot. We don’t have an implicit trust. We want safeguards, we want rules, we want laws, we want things that we can rely on and enforce.” - Nick Caleb in Portland Mercury, 6/20/2025

• “Zenith has been engaged in behavior since 2018 that almost certainly violates its franchise agreement obligations, beginning with a broken promise to state regulators and city officials that their operations would have no new throughput — throughput has more than doubled — or increases in volatile organic compound emissions.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 3/20/2025

• “Nick Caleb, climate and energy attorney at Breach Collective, said he believes over the past few years, the city’s focus has ‘shifted toward partnership with corporations offering solutions.’ He hopes to see a change in direction.” - Portland Mercury, 3/12/2025.

• Oregon Senate Bill Aims to Address Greenwashing, Portland Mercury, 3/7/2025.

• “These are all reasons to examine this franchise agreement and see if Zenith’s actually been upholding it. So, at the very least, there’s an investigation to be had here.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 1/17/2025.

2024

• “Per usual, Zenith is trying to rush a decision on a secretive project that includes new elements that have not been properly publicly vetted.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 12/19/2024.

• “Why did city staff authorize expansions of fossil fuel infrastructure? Why didn’t city staff notify DEQ about these new operations? Why did the city shut the public out of processes where community advocates could have provided crucial oversight and evidence to rebut Zenith’s claims?” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 12/9/2024.

• “Given Zenith’s record in Portland, there are myriad reasons that the DEQ could deny the air permit application so we’ll see whose interests our state agencies prioritize: the safety of the community or the profits of fossil fuel company with a pattern of dishonesty and rule breaking…I am confident that Oregonians will show up to these hearings en masse to remind DEQ who they work for.” - Nick Caleb in The Oregonian, 10/11/2024.

• “There is a vast chasm between NW Natural’s representations and reality. NW Natural has spent years greenwashing its operations to prevent needed regulation and is finally being called to account by its own customers.” - Danny Noonan for KOIN News, 10/10/2024.

• “A coalition of environmental groups called the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance is planning to protest old-growth logging on public lands in front of the Forest Service’s Portland office Thursday afternoon. Member Meg Ward, also co-founder of the Eugene-based nonprofit Breach Collective, said it is part of a growing movement of opposition to mature and old-growth logging across the region.” - Oregon Capital Chronicle, 6/13/2024.

• “They are legitimizing what the city did with Zenith. The bureaucrats of DEQ had no appetite to pursue any of this, and the EQC as their oversight body just deferred to that.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 5/24/2024.

• “In the context of everything that is going on, this is really interesting because on August 24th, no one except the city, Zenith, and now DEQ know that these conversations are taking place. There’s an active lawsuit at the same time. DEQ is basically in negotiations with a party to that litigation over how to protect its interests. That’s how this reads to me.” - Nick Caleb in DeSmog, 5/13/2024.

• How Do You Hire at a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit? - Jay Monteverde for Nonprofit Quarterly, 7/3/2024.

• Remaking the Economy: Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits in Practice - Jay Monteverde and others for Nonprofit Quarterly, 5/17/2024.

• “They misled regulators and the public about their intent and activities.” - Nick Caleb re: Zenith in The Oregonian, 4/8/2024.

• “In 2022, officials at the City of Portland — including Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Dan Ryan — plotted behind closed doors with Zenith to rush new permissions to allow the oil company to continue running oil trains through Portland neighborhoods. I’m glad that the City Auditor is holding Zenith accountable for its part, and now we need state regulators to hold city officials accountable as well.” - Nick Caleb in The Oregonian, 3/28/2024.

• “For those of us who have followed Zenith’s activities since they came to Portland, it’s not a surprise that they broke the law again.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 3/26/2024.

• “It just shows that the wealthier Portlanders who have been putting money behind dark money campaigns like People for Portland have made up their mind about who they want to see in the mayor's office.” - Nick Caleb in the Portland Mercury, 2/1/2024.

• “Given their track record, it seems likely,” Caleb said. “Portland residents’ risk from liquid fuel transport will likely increase.” - Nick Caleb re: Zenith in The Oregonian, 1/4/2024.

2023

• “The city categorizes both its denial and granting of the Land Use Compatibility Statement as an administrative process. But it’s really clear that they had a very unique and unprecedented process for Zenith. And this came after a court told them that they had to do a quasi-judicial proceeding, which requires informing the public, conducting a public comment process and disclosing ex-parte communications with Zenith and its agents. The city did none of these things.” - Nick Caleb in The Oregonian, 12/8/2023

• "Pursuant to Or. Admin. R. 340-018-0050(2)(a)(C), if DEQ 'concludes a local government LUCS review and determination may not be legally sufficient, the Department may deny the permit application and provide notice to the applicant…We encourage you to act with the boldness that the moment deserves.” - Breach letter quoted in Street Roots, 12/7/2023.

• “Our city officials intentionally worked with Zenith to issue them a new permit, allowing them to continue bringing oil tankers down our river and oil trains through our neighborhoods.” - Josie Moberg in the Mercury, 9/18/2023.

• “It has become very fashionable in the fossil fuel industry to just use the word renewable when describing the operations that they plan on doing in the future. In a lot of ways, this will depart from how maybe ordinary people understand what renewable energy is — like solar panels and wind turbines. This is not renewable in that sense.” - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 9/15/2023.

• “If you had told me the city is going to strike a deal with Zenith to allow at least five more years of their fossil fuel operations, I would just be like, ‘Why? You’re in the driver’s seat. Why would you give up your power and leverage?’ It doesn’t make any sense.”- Nick Caleb in DeSmog, 8/23/2023.

• “Anybody who follows the fossil fuel industry close knows you should be pretty skeptical about their claims. They’re not the most honest industry. They've been lying about the climate for, you know, 50 years." - Nick Caleb in Street Roots, 8/23/2023.

• “Without the work of passing laws and re-seizing the reins of politics and going to the ballot box, we can’t win. We should celebrate, sure, but we should be realistic about the work ahead.” Nick Caleb in the Guardian, 4/20/2023.

• “Prosecutors providing assurances that a new terrorism law will only be used in the most narrow and responsible ways in Oregon doesn’t ease my worries in the least…The Secretary of State report on extremism demonstrated that there’s little appetite to actually grapple with the abuses of anti-terrorism laws and institutions that have arisen in this country over the last several decades, so Oregon is at high risk of repeating history.” - Nick Caleb in The Intercept, 4/24/2023.

• “Suddenly there’s enough Democrats that also think labeling things as terrorism will have an effect on stopping that type of disruptive activity.” - Nick Caleb in Grist, 4/21/2023.

• “I think that's probably a next step ... trying to figure out how we as unionized workers and workplaces can start pressuring funders to not support organizations whose management is actively engaged in union busting or contracting with notorious union- defense firms.” - Danny Noonan in E&E, 9/5/2023.

• “The most information we got out of the meeting was how scared the city is of getting sued…You can always cite fear of litigation when you’re citing industry over community, but that’s a very frustrating answer for the community to hear.” - Josie Moberg in the Pacific Sentinel, 3/15/2023.

• “Portland is ready to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.” - Nick Caleb in the Oregonian, 2/22/2023.

2022

• “We advocated for additional measures to ensure community oversight of major polluters and protections for communities living near large liquid fuel storage tanks, but these recommendations were ignored by [Portland] city staff and City Council.” - Nick Caleb in the Oregonian, 12/8/2022.

• “The ‘deal’ does nothing to protect Portland’s residents from dangerous trains or fuel storage facilities. The city fast-tracked this decision without any community involvement and with full knowledge of how many residents and elected officials spoke out against Zenith’s operations last fall.” - Nick Caleb on Zenith in Oregon Public Broadcasting, 10/3/2022.

• “We hope that this is just the beginning of building electrification policy in Eugene, and we hope they stay the course and move expeditiously on the timelines they set themselves.” - Danny Noonan on KLCC, 8/1/2022.

• “NW Natural has been exceptionally successful for many, many years running a marketing campaign to convince people that they're a green company. Even their name makes them sound like an organic grocer rather than a fracked gas supply.” - Nick Caleb in the Mercury, 5/17/2022.