SOCAN’ General Meeting: How Should Oregon Address the Climate Crisis?
HowShould Oregon Address the Climate Crisis?
For several years, Oregon climate activists and sympatheticstate legislators promoted comprehensive greenhouse gas proposals known as Capand Trade or Cap and Invest. These proposals sought to impose a declining capon statewide emissions of greenhouse gases, while generating pollution proceedsto be invested in clean energy projects statewide, particularly in economicallydisadvantaged communities.
Legislative cap and invest proposals failed year after yearlargely as a result of resistance from Republican legislators who thwarted alllegislative action by walking out of the legislature to deny a quorum. Finally,in 2020, Governor Kate Brown issued Executive Order 20-04 charging stateagencies with developing programs within their authority that would achieve thegoals of the failed legislative proposals. After much resistance from the sameforces opposing Cap and Trade, this EO ultimately resulted in the developmentof a Climate Protection Program (CPP) that placed the state on a meaningfulemissions reduction trajectory.
As the CPP has finally been taking effect, the same forceswho resisted both past legislative Cap and Trade and the CPP are proposing toreconsider and reintroduce a legislative Cap and Trade proposal that wouldreplace the CPP. Given the source of this proposal, many climate concernedOregonians are quite skeptical of this effort. However, if such a programallowed Oregon to link with the Washington and California cap and tradeprograms, this could be beneficial. What are the tradeoffs, and what is thebest path forward for Oregon?
Nora Apter, Oregon Director of Climate Solutions, has been deeplyengaged in CPP implementation for many years and closely tracking efforts toconsider a legislative replacement of the program for some months. Nora willjoin us via ZOOM at our August monthly meeting to help us understand exactlywhat is involved and help us decide how we should respond to these discussions.
SOCAN’s next General Meeting will be Tuesday, August 25that the Medford Public Library from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. The program will involve Nora Apterdiscussing the history of cap and invest in Oregon, where the idea forreplacing the Climate Protection Program with a legislative framework comesfrom, how it’s progressing, and key considerations and policy parameters.
SOCAN’s general meetings are free and open to the public. There is no charge for attending. Moreinformation is available at: https://socan.eco/events/
Guests wishing toview the ZOOM program should contact Alan (alan@socan.eco) for details
This meeting is not sponsored nor endorsed by Jackson County LibraryServices
