Oregon lawmakers, currently engaged in a one-month legislative session, have a view for the future of Oregon: A state that is a leader in environmental sustainability with a reduced carbon footprint and progressive policies. Three bills currently under discussion by state legislators all work toward reaching this goal while reducing the impact the state has on the environment.
Oregon is already among the nation’s leaders for generating sustainable electricity, for tax breaks offered to green businesses and for a low total carbon output. Now legislators are trying to help farmers implement sustainable practices with House Bill 3627, reduce energy used by state buildings with HB 3612 and meet goals set in the 2007 legislative session with HB 3610.
The global warming bill passed in 2007 was designed to limit the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 and start reducing those levels in the following years. The plan calls for Oregon’s 2050 greenhouse gas levels to be at least 75 percent below the 1990 levels.
Today, Oregon is 16 percent above the 1990 levels, although lawmakers realized there was a major loophole in the plan that didn’t take into account out-of-state emissions sources. Legislators are trying to correct this error with HB 3610.
“It’s a process bill, a planning bill. It clears up some of the language in last year’s bill,” said Sallie Schullinger-Krause, the program director of global warming at the Oregon Environmental Council.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality can regulate large emitters of carbon in the state to meet the state’s greenhouse gas goals, but it cannot regulate importers of electricity.
It fixes some of the gaps in the old bill that had to deal with “the reporting of out of state energy” imported into Oregon, said Joan Stevens-Schwenger, spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Quality.
The inability to manage any imported energy could be an important piece of data researchers need to successfully report the state’s greenhouse gas levels.
“They may not be getting the full picture … and this would provide a stronger accounting method,” Schullinger-Krause said.
The bill also mandates that 10 state agencies report recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and integrate climate planning. Among those agencies included are the Department of Energy, Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Transportation, Department of Higher Education and any other agency designated by the Oregon Global Warming Commission.
The reports would be biannual, beginning in October, and filed every even-numbered year thereafter. The Oregon Global Warming Commission would work with state agencies to produce these reports and use the date to determine if the state is meeting its greenhouse gas emission goals.
The bill has not received a vote from the House floor yet, and is in a budgeting committee, referred to as Ways and Means, awaiting a hearing.
Farmers may receive some help in adapting to sustainable procedures, as HB 3627 is designed to create the 11-member Sustainable Agriculture Needs Assessment Advisory Committee. The committee would provide information about sustainable agriculture to farmers and ranchers who are interested in entering this rapidly growing market. This bill is also in the legislature’s Ways and Means committee.
Legislators have crafted HB 3612 in hopes of reducing the carbon emissions from buildings used by the state, said Beth Petrino, a member of House Committee of Energy and Environment. By 2015, existing facilities would be required to use 20 percent less non-renewable energy than they used in 2000.
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