Republican lawmakers walk out after Oregon climate bill advances
By Andrew Selsky
25 February 2020
SALEM, Oregon (AP) – A rebellion by GOP politicians in liberal Oregon intensified Tuesday when Republican members of the House joined their Senate counterparts in a walkout, freezing legislation on climate change, wildfire mitigation, homeless assistance and a landmark compromise between the timber industry and environmentalists.
[cf. last year’s embarrassing display:
- Threats from militia groups shut down Oregon capitol a day after GOP lawmakers fled over climate bill: “safety of legislators, staff, and citizen visitors could be compromised”
- Oregon governor sends police after Republican senators who fled Capitol over climate legislation
- The insanity in Oregon over climate legislation is a glimpse of our very dark future – People with guns block carbon market bill with threats of violence – Des]
The drastic move by Republicans in Oregon highlighted how pitched the debate over how to respond to global warming is becoming, with the GOP saying leaving the Capitol was the only way to halt legislation they view as too extreme in a Legislature dominated by Democrats. For their part, Democrats warn that doing nothing at this point is too dangerous.
A bill on climate change triggered a walkout by Republicans in 2019, causing Senate President Peter Courtney to ask Gov. Kate Brown to order state police to find them and return them to the Capitol. A modified version of the 2019 bill was reached after Democrats negotiated with some Republicans, but wasn’t enough to avoid the current walkout.
“Here it goes again,” Courtney said in an interview. But this time, he isn’t asking for state police intervention and believes Republican lawmakers may have already fled the state, out of reach of the state troopers.
“Our state police, and there are very few, cover crime, they cover forensic labs, they cover traffic, they cover drugs,” he said. “I don’t want them running around the state of Oregon, trying to find a bunch of elected officials who won’t come to work.”
The reality is, in today’s Republican party run by Donald Trump, nothing will ever be enough for them. Republicans need to come back to work and do the job Oregonians elected them do.
Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner
Protesters of the bill — most of them from rural areas and working in trucking and logging industries — recently held a demonstration at the Capitol with trucks blowing horns. Those in favor of the bill rallied on a different day, saying there is a climate emergency and that Oregon must do its share by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a transition to green energy.
Those on both sides have jammed into the Capitol for public hearings. Opponents say the plan to charge polluters for carbon credits would raise fuel costs for consumers.
On Tuesday, the Capitol was much quieter. The absence of the GOP senators and representatives prevented a quorum in either chamber. The climate bill is stalled in the Senate and other legislation has piled up during the 35-day legislative session.
A lone truck driver drove by on the street outside, leaning on his horn, as Courtney tried to think of a way out of the impasse.
“I don’t have one right now,” said the longest-serving legislator in Oregon history. “I’m brokenhearted because I think the legislative branch of government is greatest of all branches … and I respect it so much that when things don’t go right, I’m thinking you don’t have enough magic dust, you don’t have enough rabbits in hats, you’ve got to figure this out.”
If they don’t like a bill, then they need to show up and change it or show up and vote no. They should make their voices heard rather than shut down state government.
Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon
Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner said Democrats have worked in good faith with Republicans to find compromise on carbon legislation.
“The reality is, in today’s Republican party run by Donald Trump, nothing will ever be enough for them,” Smith Warner said. “Republicans need to come back to work and do the job Oregonians elected them do.” […]
”We frankly have a bill now that’s probably a minimum viable product in terms of the environmental community because of the compromises,” Nik Blosser, the governor’s chief of staff, said in an interview.
Other concessions were made.
“To have engaged Republicans in that process and to have them basically just walk out again and shut down the government is just really disappointing,” Blosser said. [more]
Oregon climate battle: GOP walkout reveals sharp divisions
GOP lawmakers walk out after Oregon climate bill advances
By Andrew Selsky
24 February 2020
SALEM, Oregon (AP) – Republican senators slipped out of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, preventing the state Senate from convening in an attempt to doom a bill aimed at stemming global warming.
The walkout was a repeat of action the GOP took last year to kill similar climate change legislation, a maneuver that prompted threats of having state police forcibly return lawmakers to the Statehouse.
The walkout threatens to derail the main legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass during a 35-day session: A bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions that threaten the planet.
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown accused the Republican lawmakers of “being against the Democratic process.” The minority Republicans staged two walkouts last year, leading Senate President Peter Courtney to request Brown to order the state police to bring the missing lawmakers back. This time, though, Courtney said he won’t involve the state police.
A few large trucks supporting the Republicans drove around the Oregon State Capitol, blowing their horns. After Courtney announced on the Senate floor that not enough senators were present to convene Monday’s session, several people in an upper gallery clapped. Courtney said he would order police to expel them if they persisted.
A visibly angry Brown denounced the boycott as undemocratic.
“If they don’t like a bill, then they need to show up and change it or show up and vote no. They should make their voices heard rather than shut down state government,” she said at a news conference.
Several Republican lawmakers were present earlier Monday as a legislative panel rejected a proposed GOP amendment to put the climate issue on the ballot in November. Instead, the Joint Ways and Means Committee approved the bill, sending it to the Senate floor fora vote.
The latest so-called cap-and-trade bill calls for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 45% below 1990 emissions levels by 2035 and to at least 80% below by 2050. The bill would force big greenhouse gas emitters to obtain credits for each metric ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Opponents say fossil fuel companies will wind up offloading increased costs to customers. [more]
GOP lawmakers walk out after Oregon climate bill advances
