august1 2019
free
VERNONIA’S
volume13 issue15
reflecting the spirit of our community
Vernonia True Value Celebrates 50 Years of Service
By Scott Laird
As many around the nation are
proudly celebrating the 50 th anniversary
of the Apollo Moon Landing in 1969,
Vernonian’s will also proudly celebrate a
50 th anniversary this year.
The Vernonia True Value Hard-
ware store, known by many as Western
Auto, is celebrating 50 years of service
by the same family. Arnie and Mary To-
lonen purchased the business in Septem-
ber 1969, which is now owned by son
Craig and his wife Tonya.
The store will hold an Anniver-
sary Celebration on Saturday, September
14, with hot dogs, drinks, and door priz-
es.
Mary and Arnie moved to Verno-
nia from Astoria in the late sixties. They
saw an ad for a Western Auto franchise that was avail-
able and decided to make the move. Arnie had been
working in the woods in logging; Mary had some retail
experience and had worked in a bank. Neither had any
experience running a hardware store.
The Tolonens rented a home in Vernonia for
$90 a month. They rented the store building for $125 a
month and eventually bought the building for $11,000.
They paid around $20,000 for the inventory of the
store. They had to borrow $750 from Arnie’s parents
to buy a truck to haul their freight.
Craig started working in the store when he was
eight. After high school, Craig left Vernonia to attend
Oregon Institute of Technology and spent a few years
after that working in the woods. But he came back and
joined the family business in 1996. The family added
the True Value Hardware name brand about twenty
years ago, and became just True Value Hardware in
2000. Craig and Tonya took over in 2015.
While a lot has changed over the past 50
years, much has remained the same. The business has
remained in the same location at 834 Bridge Street,
although things look a bit different, both inside and
out. The old red and white striped awnings over the
sidewalk, that could be rolled in and out, have been
replaced with a permanent cover.
They have expanded the store over the years,
adding the auto service bay on the east side and a
continued on page 10
Digging Deeper into Oregon’s Cap-and-Trade Proposal
Part 3: Oregon Democrats
saw a need to do their part
to address climate change
with HB 2020 but the costs to
Oregonians were just too high.
That leaves us with some big
unanswered questions.
By Scott Laird
In the last several issues of the
Voice, I’ve been writing about Oregon’s
proposed plan to set goals and reduce
green house gas emissions by 2050. The
proposal took shape as House Bill 2020,
which was passed by the Oregon House
before being halted in the Senate in June.
The proposal was massive, and
inside
7
a word from
the watershed
8
my fair lady
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columbia county fair
would have made Oregon a world lead-
er in attempting to slow global climate
change, but it also had numerous flaws,
creating many new layers of bureau-
cracy, driving up household and vehicle
energy costs, and creating unknown eco-
nomic impacts for large portions of Or-
egon’s citizenry.
Why did Oregon Democrats think HB
2020 was necessary?
In April 2016, the United States
signed onto the Paris Agreement, a trea-
ty between 196 member countries of the
United Nations. The Paris Agreement
has a long-term goal of keeping the in-
crease in global average temperature
below 2°C above pre-industrial lev-
els. The United States accepted it by
Executive Order by President Barak
Obama in September 2016. President
Obama then committed the United
States to contributing $3 billion to the
Green Climate Fund. The Fund has a
goal of raising $100 billion a year by
2020.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) accounts
for about 76 % of total greenhouse gas
emissions. Methane and nitrous oxide,
primarily from agriculture and indus-
try together contribute 22% of green-
house gas emissions.
According to the World Re-
sources Institute, China is by far the
largest contributor of greenhouse gas
emissions, emitting almost 28% in
2017. The United States, with just
4.4% of the world’s total population,
is the second largest contributor in the
world, adding 15%, followed by India
(6%) , Russia (5%), and Japan (3%),
Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Canada,
and Mexico round out the top 10, all
contributing 1-2%.
The Union of Concerned Sci-
entists looks at the data in a different
way, comparing the per capita carbon
dioxide emissions of each country from
2015 (the most recent data available),
which tells another story. Saudi Arabia
leads the way with 16.85 metric tons per
capita, followed by Australia (15.83) the
United States (15.53), Canada (15.32)
and South Korea (11.58). China is far
down the list at (6.59) although their
emissions have increased 10 fold since
1970, they are recently showing signs
of leveling off during the last decade.
Meanwhile the United States is show-
ing a slow reduction in emissions since
2005.
The U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency breaks down greenhouse
gas emissions by economic sector,
showing that transportation and elec-
tricity generation are the largest sources
of greenhouse gas emissions, (29% and
28%), followed by industry (22%), com-
mercial and residential (12%) and agri-
culture (9%).
On June 1 of 2017, following his
election, President Donald Trump an-
nounced the planned withdrawal of the
United States from the Paris Agreement;
the U.S. withdrawal does not officially
take effect until November 2020. On the
same day as Trump’s announcement, the
governors of three U.S. states (Washing-
ton, California, and New York) formed
the United States Climate Alliance to
continue to advance the objectives of the
Paris Agreement at the state level; seven
more states joined the alliance that same
evening, including Oregon. As of April
29, 2019, 23 states and Puerto Rico have
joined the alliance. Those member states
make up 50% of the U.S. population.
“The ‘America First’ doctrine
should put our children first,” said Gov-
ernor Kate Brown following Oregon’s
announcement to join. “Future genera-
tions will judge us not on the facts of
global climate change, but what we’ve
done to tackle it. Strengthening the com-
mitment to combat climate change sends
a strong message to our global allies. The
Paris Agreement is a blueprint for job
creation and prosperity, and despite the
decision by the White House to retreat,
I will continue to work with leaders on
the West Coast, across the country, and
around the world in pursuit of green-
house gas reduction goals and working
toward the development of a greener,
cleaner energy mix of the future.”
Shortly after joining U.S. Cli-
mate Alliance Brown also committed
Oregon to participating in the Climate
Change Conference (COP 23) in Bonn,
Germany in November 2017, joining
other jurisdictions around the world
that are committed to climate action.
Called the “Under2 Coalition” it is an
international pact among cities, states,
and countries committed to limiting the
increase in global average temperature
to below 2°C by either reducing their
greenhouse gas emissions from 80%
to 95% below 1990 levels, or holding
emissions to less than 2 annual metric
tons per capita by 2050. A total of 15 na-
tions are part of the global pact, includ-
ing Sweden, Mexico, and Canada, and
it includes more than 220 governments
who represent over 1.3 billion people
and 43% of the global economy.
Previously the Oregon State
legislature created the Oregon Global
Warming Commission in 2007 through
HB 3543, under the Oregon Department
of Energy. Oregon’s Governor appoints
11 voting members to the Commission,
who recommend administrative and
policy actions and changes to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions, protect the
continued on page 3