Oregon poised to enact groundbreaking “cap and invest” legislation with HB 2020

The State of Ore­gon is on the cusp of a huge cli­mate action breakthrough.

House Bill 2020 — which would make Ore­gon the sec­ond state in the coun­try to adopt a cap and invest sys­tem for pol­lu­tion reduc­tion — is on its way to the floor of the Ore­gon State House for a vote after pass­ing out of the Joint Com­mit­tee on Ways & Means today. The leg­is­la­tion is a major Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­or­i­ty for 2019.

“Cli­mate change threat­ens our com­mu­ni­ties, our econ­o­my, our ecosys­tems, and our way of life in Ore­gon,” said Gov­er­nor Kate Brown in a statement.

“We have an enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ty to forge a new path on state-lev­el pro­grams to address this cri­sis. Ore­gon can be the log that breaks the jam nation­al­ly in cre­at­ing a tai­lored statewide pro­gram that can meet sci­ence-based emis­sions reduc­tion goals while grow­ing the econ­o­my and invest­ing in clean ener­gy solu­tions, rur­al and coastal com­mu­ni­ties, and impact­ed communities.”

“Future gen­er­a­tions here in Ore­gon — and across the Unit­ed States — deserve us to not just think about their future, but to fight to pro­tect it.”

“I look for­ward to sign­ing this land­mark leg­is­la­tion lat­er this month.”

If you haven’t been track­ing the evo­lu­tion of HB 2020 in the Ore­gon state­house, here’s a quick primer on the bill from Joshua Skov, who serves on the fac­ul­ty of the Lundquist Col­lege of Busi­ness and the Cen­ter for Sus­tain­able Busi­ness Prac­tices at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon. Skov is a long­time advo­cate for sustainability.

“HB 2020 is an Ore­gon ver­sion of California’s AB 32, the land­mark cap-and-trade leg­is­la­tion,” Skov explained in an April com­men­tary. “It will cap total green­house gas emis­sions, auc­tion per­mits for the right to emit, and use those auc­tion pro­ceeds to invest in an equi­table tran­si­tion to a low-[polluting] economy.”

“HB 2020 deserves our sup­port, but it also deserves scruti­ny in the home stretch. I encour­age you to con­tact your leg­is­la­tors to express sup­port for the bill, as it remains the best chance yet for Ore­gon to join cli­mate lead­ers around the world with strong pol­i­cy action on one of the great chal­lenges of our time.”

Jaime Athos, CEO of Hood Riv­er based Tofurky, says the leg­is­la­tion is a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty for rur­al com­mu­ni­ties in Ore­gon and com­pa­nies that want to bring jobs to those com­mu­ni­ties to ensure broad pros­per­i­ty for all.

“I want rur­al Oregon’s man­u­fac­tur­ers to suc­ceed. I want com­pa­nies like mine to be able to expand and hire more work­ers across the coun­ty,” Athos wrote in an op-ed last month. “This leg­isla­tive ses­sion, law­mak­ers in Salem can help local busi­ness­es achieve these goals by pass­ing the HB 2020 cap-and-invest bill.”

Athos’ com­pa­ny decid­ed ten years ago to make a big bet on clean ener­gy. They spent mon­ey on a new build­ing built to LEED stan­dards with rooftop solar and a super effi­cient HVAC sys­tem and refrig­er­a­tion sys­tem. The result? They achieved annu­al sav­ings of forty to fifty per­cent on their ener­gy bills, enabling them to expand their pay­roll and offer more jobs to peo­ple in Hood River.

“If HB 2020 pass­es, more rur­al Ore­gon man­u­fac­tur­ers in Hood Riv­er Coun­ty and else­where could ben­e­fit by invest­ing the bill’s pro­ceeds in sim­i­lar ener­gy upgrades,” Athos says. “This saves com­pa­nies mon­ey over the long haul, free­ing up cap­i­tal to grow oper­a­tions and cre­ate jobs. Even when they’re not in-house, these jobs mat­ter to rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. Just think about the installers who drilled solar pan­el rack­ing onto our rooftop, or the HVAC tech­ni­cians who installed our ductwork.”

Athos is absolute­ly cor­rect. A just and respon­si­ble tran­si­tion to clean ener­gy could be a mas­sive boon for Cas­ca­di­a’s small towns and small businesses.

This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty we must not squan­der. Good jobs and clean­er air go hand in hand. If we want healthy com­mu­ni­ties, then we need to sub­stan­tial­ly reduce or end unsus­tain­able activ­i­ties that pol­lute our atmos­phere, our rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans, and our soil. HB 2020 will help trans­form our region for the better.

It’s time to accel­er­ate the clean ener­gy rev­o­lu­tion in the Pacif­ic North­west! Let’s get HB 2020 passed and to the desk of Gov­er­nor Kate Brown to be signed into law.