Putting a Price on Greenhouse Gases in Oregon: an Update

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Great progress was made in the short Legislative session. Portland is lucky to have as climate champions in the Oregon Legislature, Senator Michael Dembrow, and Representative Ken Helm who have moved the Clean Energy Jobs bill ever closer to the finish line. Below is a quote from Sen. Dembrow that summarizes well where things stand now:

“The 2018 Legislative Session generated the kind of grassroots support we’ve been dreaming of for years. We had another incredible round of hearings early in the session with an enormous amount of outside advocacy, including more than 500 Oregonians from all over the state descending on the Capitol for a lobby day on February 12. Oregon’s tribes voted to support the legislation and came to the Capitol to show support. Nike formally joined the business organizations supporting the legislation, as have many other Oregon businesses and farms. Scores of high school students and even younger children have been roaming the halls calling on us as adults to take action to secure a better future for them and their peers.”

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Rally and Lobby Day in Salem for the Clean Energy and Jobs Bill

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On March 23rd over 300 activists rallied on the steps of the Capitol in support of the Clean Energy and Jobs Bill, SB 557. Senator Michael Dembrow, chair of the Senate’s Natural Resources and Environment Committee spoke to the gathered activists and encouraged us to let our legislators know that we care deeply about the need to put a price on carbon pollution. He said that leadership on the climate in Oregon is more important than ever as climate deniers have taken on key roles throughout the Executive Branch and Congress too is controlled by climate deniers.

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Let’s Get Our Legislators To Up Their Game And Go For The Gold

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cav-mkcvaagpfsvYou might imagine that Earth got caught up in all the buzz about the Olympics and Paralympics, given all the records it’s been setting, in particular global temperature records. Of course there’s only one Earth so the climate’s been competing against itself, with each of the last twelve months (through September 2016)  exceeding the previous record average temperature for that month since records began being kept about 150 years ago.

Climate Change is racing on ahead but the Oregon legislature is falling behind despite climate awareness on the part of many individual legislators. Read more

Putting A Price On Carbon and Investing in the Future

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The Healthy Climate Bill [Update Feb 2016]

Great News! The Healthy Climate Bill has passed out of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee and now faces a vote in the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

We can once again be a national leader in addressing the climate crisis. The Healthy Climate Bill will help us smooth the way into the just transition needed to achieve a fossil free future.

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Global Warming and the Poor: Pricing Carbon

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In 2006, California passed Assembly Bill, 32, which is made up of several policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a cap-and-trade system. Because low-income people and people of color suffer disproportionately from the effects of rising temperatures and pollution, California passed Senate Bill 535 in 2012, which mandated that 25 percent of the revenues from cap-and-trade go to programs that improve the lives of people in these communities.

The rest of the country, our state included, has a long way to go as far as imposing a carbon pricing system like California’s. HB 3470, a bill that could have put a price on carbon and pollution here in Oregon, never got out of the Ways and Means committee and did not pass. Read more

Support Climate Stability: HB 3470

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Oregon has established strong, science-based targets for reducing global warming pollution but we are not on track for meeting those goals. It’s time for Oregon to implement policies that will make us a leader in responding to climate change. Let state government know it’s time for us to meet our environmental goals.

Patterned after a bill that passed in California, The Climate Stability and Justice Act – HB 3470 – would enforce Oregon’s existing Greenhouse Gas Emission reduction goals and direct the state to implement a cost-efficient, market-based program to guarantee that Oregon meets its goals. Importantly, it would also ensure that disadvantaged communities directly benefit from Oregon’s transition to clean energy. Read more

Action Alert: Tell the Legislature the time to price carbon is now

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The House Energy and Environment Committee is holding a hearing on carbon pricing on Tuesday, April 14. Please join us in calling on the committee – and the rest of the legislature – to put a price on carbon THIS session. This policy would ensure a just, lasting transition toward a clean energy economy that benefits everyone.

The hearing will be held from 3 – 5 PM on Tuesday, April 14. Please email Page at page@oregonclimate.org if you’re interested in attending, and we’ll keep you updated about opportunities to testify and carpool (we’re taking a bus from Portland — everyone’s welcome!).

We also strongly encourage everyone to reach out to their legislators to show support for carbon pricing. You can find legislators contact information here.

Oregon Climate Action Day

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Viewed all day from closed-circuit televisions in state office buildings! Credit: WestTurn Picture Co

Oregon Climate Action Day was a big success. Bonnie, Adriana, and Adam helped represent 350 PDX and talked with legislators to express support for a carbon tax in Oregon.

We met with Rep. Jules Bailey, Sen. Rosenbaum’s office, and more!

Visit OregonCAN for more information on the big day and to learn more about a carbon tax for Oregon.

Now the salmon is migrating to Salem…

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350pdxlogo_0We invite you to the first Oregon Climate Action Day on Wednesday, May 22nd at 11am on the Oregon Capitol steps in Salem. Join hundreds from across the state who share a vision of climate solutions and a thriving clean energy economy.

Throughout the day, our trained citizen lobby teams will meet with 20 legislators to ask that they author or sign on to an effective, market-based, upstream solution we believe in: a revenue-neutral carbon tax that sets a scientifically-determined and predictably graduating price on pollution. Oregon can implement such a policy to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost our local, renewable economy (as modeled by the tax levied in British Columbia in 2008 and proposed at the national level by the Citizens Climate Lobby).

We are proud as Oregonians to be part of a state with a history of bipartisan problem-solving and innovation on tough issues – from the bottle bill to current healthcare innovations – and know that Oregon can again lead the country on humanity’s greatest challenge yet: climate change.

Oregon Climate Action Day attendees will help launch the grassroots network Oregon CAN: which exists to connect climate-concerned Oregonians, organize creative advocacy, educate onarket-based climate solutions, and to empower citizens to lobby their elected officials.

This event is a point of convergence for people on fronts across the state engaged in the good fight to break free from dependence on destructive fossil fuels.

RSVP today to camilathorndike@gmail.com to join a citizen lobby team and ask your Representative or Senator to support an effective, upstream, market-driven solution to climate change. Fossil fuel lobbyists are there every day. It’s time for us to show up and defend our state and future.

Remember to sign up here for the countdown till May 22!

 

**Click below for additional info:

Documents viewable here.

If you plan on joining us in Salem on Wednesday, May 22nd, please let me know so we’ll have an idea of the numbers of people we expect to have from the Portland Metro Area.

Contact me if you need general or carpooling info.

Thanks!-Bonnie McKinlay

350pdx@gmail.com

503-705-1943