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Energy:
Capping greenhouse gas pollution

Our Position: support
Bill Number: SB 80
Sponsor: Governor Ted Kulongoski
Legislative Session: 2009

Status

The orginigal SB 80 essentially would have authorized a 'hard cap' on greenhouse gas pollution designed to meet the state's goal of 10% reductions of greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020 and 75% below 1990 levels by 2050. However, strong pressure from coal burning utilities like PGE and Pacificorp in particular prompted significant changes. SB 80 A-engrossed passed the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in late April. While no longer a strict economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions, it would have move Oregon forward significantly in the utility sector by requiring carbon reduction planning at the Public Utility Commission in order to meet the state's greenhouse gas emissions goals, and would have coordinated statewide greenhouse gas reduction strategies across all sectors.

Unfortunately, this bill stalled in the Ways and Means subcommittee on Natural Resources where coal burning utilities and industrial groups representing polluting industry like pulp mills and timber companies continued to try to water the bill down. Utility and industry proposals would have rendered the bill largely meaningless, while tying the hands of state agencies like the Department of Environmental Quality from being able to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from major sources.

With a strong possibility that a utility/industry backed bill would move forward over the objections of the environmental community and actually set Oregon back in our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Sierra Club and others asked legislative leaders to either vote on SB 80 A-engrossed, which reflected significant compromise, or kill SB 80 for the session. The bill subsequently died without a committee vote.

We view the failure of the Oregon Senate to bring SB 80 A-engrossed to a vote as a missed opportunity to stimulate economic growth in Oregon through investments in green jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy, while helping protect our environment and climate.

Action Needed

More information

Background

In 2007, Oregon passed HB 3543 which established ambitious, but reachable, goals for the reduction of greenhouse gases - 75% of 1990 levels by 2050. Investments in energy efficiency and renewables will help get us there, but we will not reach these goals unless we take serious action to directly cap the amount of greenhouse gas pollution emitted through electricity generation, by the fuels we use, and through land management practices.

SB 80 would have led to the development of a 'cap-and-trade' system for greenhouse gases generated though electricity use and transportation in Oregon, and would require the reporting and registration of greenhouse gas pollution so that significant emissions reductions are met. By adopting SB 80, Oregon could have led the way for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, while stimulating economic activity in energy efficiency retrofits and the increased development of renewable and cleaner sources of power. Oregon could have provided a model for a national greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system, and we view the failure of SB 80 as a missed opportunity to further grow the green economy in Oregon.

The Sierra Club advocates a 2% reduction in greenhouse gas consumption annually in order to achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is what leading scientists say it will take to rein in global warming and its consequences. We support a variety of strategies to attain this goal including caps on greenhouse gas pollution, and the trading or auctioning or credits as long as the cap on greenhouse gases is set low enough, and that all offsets and allowances are strictly verfied.