Oregon Republicans replayed their favorite stunt, fleeing to deny the legislature a quorum to vote on Cap-and-Trade. OR Gov. Kate Brown vowed to implement one by Executive Order, and has followed through with measures even stronger than the dead bill.
Gov. Kate Brown Orders State Action On Climate Change
Oregon Republicans killed cap and trade this year. Now, they’ll have to contend with cap and reduce.
Closing a loop on a pledge she made last year, Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order Tuesday that aims to sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions with a full-court press by government agencies.
The 14-page order comes less than a week after a Republican walkout killed Senate Bill 1530, Democrats’ signature proposal for a cap-and-trade system in Oregon. It contains ambitions that are at once equal to and much broader than that bill.
Like SB 1530, Brown’s order updates the state’s carbon reduction goals, setting targets of a 45% reduction below 1990 levels by 2035, and an 80% reduction by 2050. But its path to those goals extends well beyond the regulations in the legislative proposal.
Note that the stated goal is an 80% reduction in all greenhouse gases, not just those from electricity production or cars. I would argue that Oregon and everybody else needs to get to Carbon Neutrality wll before then, and get well started on going Carbon Negative. But it's all right. There will be plenty of opportunities to improve the plan in the next 30 years.
Meanwhile, OR Republicans continue their freakout, as though Democrats will come to understand the moral rectitude of their greed if they just scream loud enough.