RODEO: sorey wins state tie-down title | SPORTS, A7
E O
AST
143rd year, no. 174
REGONIAN
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Cap and
trade
passes the
House
The massive
environmental policy
would heavily regulate
carbon emissions
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLeM — after months of
committee hearings, Republicans
relished their final opportunity to
pepper democrats over their pro-
posed legislation to cap greenhouse
gas.
They took to the floor to give
grand speeches they can point to
when on the campaign trail, but they
weren’t able impact a vote.
That was decided well before
House Bill 2020 hit the floor, where
it passed 36-24 on Monday.
It’s a significant and penultimate
step for the Oregon Legislature.
The bill now moves to the sen-
ate where the vote margin will likely
be slimmer, but it’s expected to pass
nonetheless.
Rep. Karin Power, d-Milwaukie,
carried the bill on the floor and
co-chaired the joint committee that
created it. she said climate change is
the greatest threat of our lifetime, but
we still have an opportunity to limit
our impact on the environment.
The policy known as cap and
trade, if passed, will go into effect in
2021 and join Oregon with Califor-
nia as the only states in the country
with an economy-wide carbon pric-
ing program.
The program will heavily regu-
late emissions in the hopes of forc-
ing industry to find cleaner ways to
produce and ship goods.
By charging companies to emit
greenhouse gasses, the state will
create a revenue stream to fund proj-
ects to mitigate the impact of cli-
mate change, as well as limit the
effect of the program on low-income
communities.
However, Republicans do not
believe in the mechanisms to soften
the blow on low-income and rural
Oregonians.
They say cap and trade will
destroy Oregon’s business climate
— something they say democrats
have had in their crosshairs for years
with policies like the clean fuel stan-
dard and “coal to clean” legislation
aimed at transitioning electric utili-
ties from coal-generated power.
But in the end, the two sides just
don’t see eye to eye, and Orego-
nians have stuffed the Capitol with
democrats.
It was a point made early in
floor debate by Rep. Kim Wallan,
R-Medford.
Wallan, in speaking from her
opponents’ perspective, said it’s
the case of the “woke” versus the
“rubes.” Both find it incredibly
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Umatilla Fire Department rescue boat searches the south shore of the Columbia River for missing boaters on Monday
east of Umatilla. Janice Arsenault, 44, of Umatilla, and Trenton Williams, 20, from Idaho, went missing in the river while
boating on Saturday.
Searchers recover pair
missing in Columbia River
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Boaters went missing
saturday evening near
Bobby’s Beach
u
M aT I LLa
— The search
for two adults
missing from a boat
on the Columbia River
ended Monday eve-
ning. The umatilla
Arsenault
County Sheriff’s Office
confirmed the recovery
of both bodies.
sheriff’s Lt. sterrin Holcomb said
sonar equipment played the crucial role
in finding the bodies of Janice Arse-
nault, 44, of umatilla, and Trenton Wil-
liams, 20, from Idaho.
They went missing saturday evening
on the river near Bobby’s Beach, a small
site along Highway 730 near milepost
195, after a caller reported two adults
were no longer on a boat that pulled onto
shore.
The umatilla County sheriff’s
Office, Morrow County Sheriff’s Office
and several other agencies responded
soon after the call. umatilla County
sheriff Terry Rowan said rescue boats
from multiple agencies arrived that night
to scour the water, and as word spread
of the crisis, as many as 30 private boats
participated.
“There was a tremendous number
of resources out there saturday evening
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan talks on a cellphone while on the south
shore of the Columbia River on Monday during a search for two missing boaters
east of Umatilla.
until about 1 sunday morning,” he said.
Law enforcement from nearby
counties in Washington sent person-
nel. Teams walked the shoreline for any
signs of arsenault and Williams.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a hay-
stack,” Rowan said, “only underwater.”
searchers took a break sunday night
and resumed the effort in the morning.
They returned again Monday morning.
By that afternoon, Holcomb reported,
the focus of the search became recovery
efforts.
In June 2018, arsenault became
a volunteer firefighter for the Uma-
tilla Rural Fire Protection district. The
Hermiston Herald, the East Oregonian’s
sister publication, profiled Arsenault in
september 2018.
she revealed she lost her health care
job in Las Vegas in 2008 and moved to
umatilla because she has family there.
She worked as an office specialist at
Blue Mountain Community College.
she loved sushi and in her spare time
enjoyed hanging with friends and riding
her Harley-davidson motorcycle. arse-
nault said she was working toward the
See Missing, Page A6
See Environment, Page A6
New policy seeks to curb wildfire risks
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
PORTLand — as Ore-
gon braces for another hot
and dry summer, one of its
biggest utility companies
has announced a new wild-
fire policy aimed at reducing
wildfire risks across their
service area.
“We want to make sure,
going forward, that we’re
keeping communities safe
during those high-wind and
dry conditions,” said scott
Bolton, the senior vice pres-
ident of external affairs and
customer solutions at Pacific
Power.
The
new
policies,
announced
last
week,
include clearing vegeta-
tion around power lines and
poles, increasing inspec-
tions at facilities, training
their field crews in wildfire
suppression, and install-
ing local weather stations
to help identify high fire
risk days. They also plan to
implement “Public safety
Power shutoffs” if danger-
ous weather is expected in
high fire risk areas. If the
power is cut before the wind
blows down lines, there’s
less risk of fire.
electricity
providers
have been under increased
scrutiny since a num-
ber of wildfires in Califor-
nia were linked to downed
power lines during wind-
storms, improperly main-
tained power stations, and
areas where brush had
grown too close to electrical
infrastructure.
Former residents of Par-
adise, California, sued their
utility, Pacific Gas and Elec-
tric (PG&E), for negligence
See Pacific Power, Page A6
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