Climate Emergency Team
Coordinator: Claudia Keith
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Climate Change Budget: Claudia Keith
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Climate Curriculum: Anne Nesse
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Climate Lawsuits: Claudia Keith and Nivi Giani
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Environmental Rights Amendment: Claudia Keith
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Natural and Working Lands Forestry: Josie Koehne
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Ways and Means Funding/Budget: Claudia Keith
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Climate Emergency
By Claudia Keith, Climate Emergency Coordinator and Team
Department of Environmental Quality Climate Protection Program: Action Alert and Testimony
LWVOR published a September ALERT related to an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) Climate Protection Program Sept 26 rulemaking public hearing. This meeting was scheduled late August to provide for more public comments. OPB: ‘Public will get a little longer to weigh in on Oregon’s program to cut carbon emissions.’
The League continues to advocate for strong ODEQ Climate Protection Program (CPP) rules. We have been participating in the CPP rulemaking process since its inception in 2021. Find the most recent LWVOR testimony for the CPP rulemaking public hearing here.
Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) action: DEQ plans to present the final CPP rulemaking proposal, including any modifications made in response to public comments, to the EQC for a decision at its Nov. 21-22 meeting. The goal continues to be a 2025 CPP implementation.
Oregon Climate Action Commission - OCAC
(formally Global Warming Commission): September 17, Meeting Highlights
DEQ Consumption-Based Emissions (CBE) Inventory and Project Report
DEQ staff briefed OCAC on the agency’s draft report and recommendations on opportunities to reduce Oregon’s consumption-based GHG emissions, mandated by 2024 HB 3409. Staff had previewed an earlier draft of this report during OCAC’s August meeting.
While Oregon’s sector-based emissions peaked in the first decade of this century, CBE have continued to soar, so our overall carbon footprint has gone up, not down. DEQ and its consultant, the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), identified many ways Oregon can reduce its CBE—e.g., by reducing embodied emissions in new construction, the largest governmental source, through green building codes, product regulations and standards, financial incentives, etc. The report also presents marginal abatement cost curves (“bang for the buck”) for various policy initiatives.
Draft recommendations:
1. The Legislature, in consultation with OCAC, should adopt a goal to reduce CBE. 2. The Legislature, OCAC, and state agencies should take more action to reduce CBE.
Address high-impact categories of emissions and activities with high emissions- reduction potential.
Enable consumer awareness and choices through structural and policy changes that make low-carbon choices more easy, affordable, equitable, and accessible.
Align with other statewide priorities, such as increasing affordable housing, reducing negative health outcomes, and reducing food insecurity.
Consider “product stewardship” approaches that engage producers of products and materials sold into Oregon.
Center human well-being in policy design, paying particular attention to equity considerations, including needs and opportunities for low-income, BIPOC, and residents in rural areas.
Engage cross-cutting/cross-sector approaches that can reduce multiple sets of emissions while also generating co-benefits to society.
Minimize rebound effects by focusing on reducing consumption of commodities with high emissions intensities.
3. DEQ should update its CBE inventory on a timely and more frequent basis.
OCAC Biennial Report
The Commission reviewed and discussed draft recommendations for potential inclusion in its Biennial Report, due to the Legislature on 12/1/2024. OCAC intends to adopt the final recommendations in October. Sources of the following draft recs were OCAC’s Roadmap to 2030, the Natural and Working Land’s (N&WL)priorities, and DEQ’s CBE work.
Recommendation 1: Support robust and continuous implementation of existing climate programs and regulations.
Restore the CPP with same scope and ambition as before.
Develop policies and programs that maximize the existing grid infrastructure,
accelerate new transmission and renewable energy siting, and advance regional
energy markets.
Increase funding for Oregon Public Utility Commission oversight of HB 2021 and CPP implementation.
Increase funding for ODOE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant program, Heat
Pump programs, and Solar + Storage program; ODHS’s Community Resilience Hubs and Network Grant program; DEQ’s EV Rebate programs; and OHA’s Healthy Homes program.
Recommendation 2: Update Oregon’s statutory Green House Gas (GHG) emission goals consistent with best available science – revisiting Senator Dembrow’s bill, SB522A, which failed to pass in 2023.
Recommendation 3: Appropriate an additional $10 million to the N&WL Fund and to the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program to increase carbon sequestration.
Recommendation 4: Investigate options and create a sustained source of state funding to increase sequestration in N&WL, including consideration of a setting up a Green Bank to use the state’s bonding capacity to incentivize private investments.
Recommendation 5: Adopt a goal to reduce Oregon’s CBE.
Recommendation 6: Take targeted actions to reduce CBE from transportation, the built
environment, and food waste.
Recommendation 7: Direct and fund DEQ to update the CBE inventory every 2 years, and direct OCAC to report on progress toward the state’s CBE reduction goals as part of OCAC’s Biennial Report to the Legislature.
Senator Dembrow and Commissioner Apter urged a special focus on transportation-related measures to prevent the expected transportation package from increasing GHG emissions. Other commissioners suggested developing additional recommendations related to climate adaptation and resilience.
Oregon Environmental Justice Council
Environmental Justice Mapping Tool Extension Request was adopted in Aug . New proposed deadline moves to June 2027. Other past and future OEJC meeting details find HERE.
Environmental Quality Commission Meeting Highlights
Report on the portions of the 9/26-27 EQC meeting bearing on the CPP 2024 rulemaking.
Oral public comment on Thursday afternoon heavily favored the OCEN partners' positions. The commissioners' Friday morning discussion made it clear that they had also heard plenty from the regulated businesses, some of whom had suggested that EQC drop this rulemaking and invite the legislature to develop a cap and trade program. The commissioners expressed their determination to move forward with rules for a climate program that will be a model for best practices, providing Oregon businesses with long-term regulatory certainty to bring forth the appropriate investments and giving climate skeptics no reason to point to Oregon as an example of what not to do. The following major issues rose to the top.
Community Climate Investments (CCI) program accountability: Industry, especially NW Natural, has challenged the validity and expense of this program as the primary alternative vehicle for CPP compliance. Commissioners expressed support for the program but with guardrails to ensure maximum accountability and investment performance. Chair Donegan stressed the need for a laser focus on the quality, tradability, and bankability of CCI projects to make sure these are attractive investments for potential buyers. Do the CPP rules need to define the vetting process for eligible CCI entities and projects more rigorously? DEQ's McConnaha noted that the Equity Advisory Council is set up to help prioritize work plans and that the proposed third-party fees will fund a full FTE for DEQ to oversee CCI performance. Comm. Schlusser noted that many CCI projects are likely to link with and leverage existing programs such as those of Energy Trust, but attribution of results may become challenging. Donegan suggested that the final rules should clarify EQC's role, if any, in overseeing fund allocation.
CCI prices are a related concern. Donegan said the proposed price of $126 per CCI appears less expensive than the cost of neighboring states' compliance instruments, given that the CPP would award most emission allowances free off the top. Real worry is the decarbonization cost passed on to consumers over time. As our emissions cap declines and covered entities have to buy more CCIs, our program could become more expensive than California’s. McConnaha said in 2 years of experience with the CPP, we saw overcompliance with the program requirements without the CCI program in place. So while the focus on the CCI price is understandable, it’s only one of many variables affecting CPP compliance.
Treatment of Energy-Intensive Trade Exposed (EITEs) industries: Public comments show widespread support for creating this new category of regulated entities (manufacturers that face competition from outside Oregon), favored with a slower emissions cap trajectory to prevent job losses in Oregon and emissions "leakage" to other states. A movement emerged late in the rulemaking process advocating that DEQ develop a method to regulate these entities according to the specific carbon intensity (MT CO2e/per unit produced) of each manufacturing process. DEQ has pledged to address this proposition and the regulation of industrial process emissions in a near-future rulemaking.
Recognition of “early” emission reductions: DEQ proposes a large one-time distribution of compliance instruments to fossil fuel suppliers in 2025 to recognize what those suppliers would have banked or traded by the time the program was invalidated. DEQ believes it is important to honor those suppliers’ early emissions reductions. Environmentalists vehemently oppose this on the grounds that it would oversupply the market with compliance instruments and could derail the CCI program early on. McConnaha maintained that the move to shorter compliance periods (2 years vs. 3) will spur overall market activity for compliance instruments, including CCI investments. Comm. Moynahan asked what would be the consequence if DEQ rescinded this proposal. McConnaha replied: a tighter market with fewer instruments available and less certainty for the regulated entities. OCEN has urged DEQ to consider adopting several changes to mitigate the worst impacts of this measure, including distributing the additional compliance instruments over 10 years, beginning with the second compliance period.
It is hard to know whether DEQ will revise any of the proposed rules before EQC votes on the final rulemaking in November, but formal public input is done. Stay tuned!
OEA: Oregon Revenue Forecast Sept Report published 8/28/24
I encourage you to notice the number of times climate is mentioned in this report, it appears a model for climate risk disclosure. This may be the only state revenue forecast in the country that clearly addresses most climate related risks.
Climate Litigation and Congressional Climate Resolution
Sept 2024 Updates to the Climate Case Charts | Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Oregon Cases –78 as of Sept 2024
News:
Some of these topics may be addressed in 2025 session
Oregon continues to be in the top ten states, the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), evaluates states across six key policy areas related to renewable energy
Bill McKibben in Portland: July 5, 2024. - Greg Martin
McKibben gave an address on climate change at the First Unitarian Church in Portland last week. He spoke compellingly for some 40 minutes, starting with the worst disaster news and moving on to more optimistic themes, including the potential of senior activism to make a critical difference. This recording begins with a series of intros, including promotion for Third Act Oregon. McKibben starts at around the 25-minute mark. His advocacy on this subject is nothing short of amazing.
‘Statewide fracking bans are in place in five states: Vermont, New York, Maryland, Washington, and Oregon (Oregon’s moratorium ends on January 2, 2025). California currently has a moratorium on fracking in place and a full ban will start in October 2024. Individual counties across the country have also passed their own fracking bans.’
POSTED IN POLLUTION: HCN.: Preventing the next ‘Fukushima’
As oil and gas operations at Portland’s CEI Hub grow, so do the chances of a catastrophic spill. Isobel Whitcomb September 1, 2024
OPB : Energy demand from data centers growing faster than West can supply, experts say “In a webinar hosted by regional transmission authorities, data centers were called a “major challenge” for the energy industry, as well as extreme weather”
US delays Oregon floating offshore wind lease auction amid 'low interest' | Windpower Monthly US shelves Oregon offshore wind auction after protest from governor – MarketScreener :Reuters: (Reuters) -The Biden administration on Friday canceled a planned auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of Oregon after the state's governor said she did not support the sale.
Oregon’s biggest gas company isn’t as green as it claims- EHN
Volunteers Needed
Request to Local Leagues; please let us know your climate, resilience, or sustainability advocacy actions. Please consider joining the Climate Emergency portfolio team; We collaborate with Natural Resource Action members on many Climate Change mitigation and adaptation policy topics. Volunteers are needed. Orientation to Legislative and State Agency advocacy processes is available.