OPINION
Wallowa County Chieftain
A4
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
2020 Vision
T
here is probably
not a single sen-
tient being in all
of Oregon who has not
followed the drama of
HB2020’s demise. Some
bemoan its loss. Oth-
ers celebrate its doom.
It was a cumbersome
chunk of legislation.
Lengthy and obsessively
detailed in some por-
tions, excessively vague
in others, its 100 page
carcass—bloated to
about 160 pages if you
add the amendments,
budget analyses, and
other addenda — was
weighty and complex.
It neglected—in fact,
protected—two signif-
icant sources of green-
house gasses and pollu-
tion: Aviation fuel (read:
airlines) and diesel loco-
motives. It added lay-
ers of bureaucracy as
though it was building a
hero-sandwich of regu-
lations. Its pages detail
how to distribute the lar-
gess from purchased
carbon credits--mostly
to committees who will
then figure out what to
do with the funds, and
who might benefit most
from the rewards.
But now that we have
wept or celebrated our
goodbyes and thrown
roses or bull-thistles on
the freshly mounded
grave, it’s time to move
forward on action to
curb greenhouse emis-
sions and move toward
a cleaner, greener econ-
omy. We need to view
the future with 2020
vision. For, despite its
fatal flaws, this now-de-
Cap and trade battle highlights
rural-urban divide issues
By Aubrey Wieber, Claire
Withycombe and Mark
Miller
Oregon Capital Bureau
The debate on climate
change appears to have deep-
ened the gap between the lib-
eral politics of Portland and
Eugene and the conservative
politics of rural areas with
natural resource and agri-
cultural economies.
The impacts of the fight
over doomed House Bill 2020
aren’t fully clear yet. Legisla-
tors finished their work Sunday
and head home to constituents
with deeply divergent views of
whether Oregon ought to limit
carbon emissions.
Cap-and-trade advocates
said lawmakers and indus-
try skillfully exploited the
rural-urban divide, whipping
up resentment in traditionally
conservative parts of the state
and turning the climate issue
into a lightning rod.
One of HB 2020’s chief
architects, Sen. Michael Dem-
brow, D-Portland, said he tried
to mitigate rural concerns.
“Great care has been put
into shielding rural Orego-
nians from negative impacts
from the bill, while creating
investments that will breathe
new life into their local econ-
omies,” Dembrow said. “The
opposition knows this but has
chosen to sow fear in the hearts
and minds of rural Oregonians
through a campaign of distor-
tion and misinformation.”
Opponents, including the
11 Republican senators who
fled the state last week to pre-
vent a vote on HB 2020, say
the cap-and-trade plan’s urban
supporters simply don’t under-
stand their rural counterparts.
“Part of governing is
including all of Oregon, not
just Multnomah County, in
what is going to be included
in legislation,” said Sen. Tim
Knopp, R-Bend.
Andrew Miller, a major
Republican donor and chief
executive officer of Port-
land-based Stimson Lumber
Co., framed HB 2020 in more
colorful terms.
“It’s a ‘screw-you’ to rural
Oregon so that people in urban
Oregon can feel good about
saving the planet,” Miller said.
Oregon is often described as
a “blue state,” one that favors
Democrats. But that belies the
reality that Oregon, like many
Western states, contains sharp
political contrasts.
Oregon’s few major cities
and their suburbs hold the bulk
of the population and, there-
fore, its voter base and political
power. They are overwhelm-
ingly “blue” in contrast to the
largely “red” counties of East-
ern Oregon and the Oregon
coast.
As of January, Oregon had
Oregon Capital Bureau
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena,
speaks on the Senate floor
Saturday, June 29.
969,106 registered Democrats,
701,392 registered Republi-
cans and 911,387 voters who
were not affiliated with a party.
And some of the state’s
rapidly growing regions such
as Bend and Hood River are
becoming more liberal.
But one statewide survey
suggested views on climate
change were driven more by
politics than geography.
The Portland firm DHM
surveyed Oregonians in March
about whether Oregon “should
do more to address climate
change.”
Eighty-five percent of Dem-
ocrats said yes, compared to 25
percent of Republicans and 53
percent of nonaffiliated voters
and those registered with other
parties.
By area, 64 percent of
respondents in the Portland
area agreed, compared with 58
percent in the Willamette Val-
ley and 44 percent in the rest
of the state.
Backers of cap-and-trade
said rural Oregon would have
benefited in a way that oppo-
nents downplayed, obfuscated
or ignored.
Sen. Arnie Roblan, a Coos
Bay Democrat, said such views
don’t account for the chal-
lenges of life in rural Oregon.
“They have to drive farther
and farther because the mills
are farther and farther away,”
said Roblan, who opposed the
cap-and-trade plan. “All of
these things conspire to make
people who don’t see a lot of
hope out there, and that is very
frustrating to them, and when
other people don’t acknowl-
edge that, it makes it even
harder.”
Even supporters of HB
2020 like Sen. Jeff Golden,
D-Ashland, acknowledge it’s
a tough sell.
Golden is one of three
Democratic senators who live
outside the Willamette Valley
and represent largely rural con-
stituencies. He said he under-
stands the concerns he hears in
his sprawling southern Oregon
district.
The timber industry there
was decimated by the spotted
owl decision and other shifts,
both political and economic, in
the late 20th century.
Some timber companies
supported HB 2020, which
exempted the industry from
regulations.
Others did not, including
Miller’s Stimson Lumber.
Miller believes that while some
businesses and groups would
prosper under cap-and-trade,
others would suffer.
“It’s all about picking politi-
cal winners and losers,” Miller
said.
Similarly, while cap-and-
trade had the support of some
farmers, the Oregon Farm
Bureau was opposed.
Jenny Dresler, lobbyist for
the Oregon Farm Bureau, said
cap-and trade didn’t address
businesses’ concerns that cost
increases would drive them
under.
“I don’t know that it’s
urban versus rural as much as
it’s understanding some of the
pressures in different sectors in
Oregon’s economy,” she said.
Oregon’s farmers compete
with growers in other states,
and even in other countries.
Neighboring Idaho doesn’t
have anything like the regula-
tions and fees included in HB
2020, Dresler pointed out.
Analysts said the bill would
have immediately resulted in
higher fuel costs, something
opponents zeroed in on.
Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale,
worried that the increased cost
of fuel, for example, could
make Oregon farmers less
competitive.
“In my district, you take a
farmer in Ontario that grows
onions,” Findley said. “When
he sells his onions, he sells
them on an open market with
growers from Idaho, and if the
farmer from Oregon has to pay
22 cents a gallon more for fuel,
his operating costs are up. …
The guy from Idaho whose fuel
is 22 cents a gallon cheaper, his
cost of production is less, but
they’re selling the same prod-
uct to the same people.”
It’s not just farmers and log-
gers, either. Higher fuel prices
affect urban and rural Oregon
differently.
While Portlanders might
complain about sitting in traf-
fic not experienced in places
like Coos Bay and Ontario,
most of the distances they
travel are short, and to get to
some appointments, they can
walk, bike, or take the bus or
light rail.
In places where the pop-
ulation density is low, like
Findley’s district — which is
roughly the size of South Car-
olina — it’s a different story.
“The people that don’t
have those expenses say,
‘Well, you have to reduce
your car driving,’” Findley
said. “(But) you have to be
able to live and eat. You go to
a doctor, you drive 150 miles.
… It’s a different set of rules.”
funct legislation had
many good ideas. They
included cleaning up our
single coal-fired power
plant located in Board-
man, as well as ensuring
that natural gas-powered
plants are also clean.
The bill offered the fol-
lowing priorities for the
“investment of monies
from the Climate Invest-
ments Fund”—the mon-
eys collected by the
Trade part of Cap and
trade: protect sources of
domestic drinking water;
reduce greenhouse gas
emissions related to
Bend Bulletin
We’ve likely all had
them, maybe at least once
a day — those annoying
robocalls that interrupt din-
ner or whatever else you
happen to be doing at the
time. Stopping them per-
manently may be difficult,
even impossible. But Con-
gress continues to try, and
that’s good.
Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Hood River, the top
Republican on the House
Energy and Commerce
Committee, and Rep. Frank
Pallone, D-N.J., committee
chairman, are co-sponsors
of the Stopping Bad Robo-
calls Act, which this week
was sent to the full commit-
tee for a vote.
The measure tells the
Federal Communications
Commission to require
telephone carriers, both of
landline and cellular ser-
vices, to use technology
that prevents spoofing,
which involves providing
misleading caller identifi-
cation. In addition, the bill
would extend the statute of
limitations for some robo-
call violations and pressure
the FCC to enforce current
robocall laws more strictly.
Robocalls are more
than an occasional annoy-
ance. The FCC says more
than 5 billion of the calls,
many of them fraudulent,
were made in May alone.
In 2018, for example, rob-
ocalls pitched phony health
insurance policies to unsus-
pecting victims. So far this
year, more than 25 billion
robocalls have been made
in the U.S. Moreover, they
cost Americans billions of
dollars per year, according
to Truecaller, the Swedish
company that makes a rob-
ocall blocker by the same
name for cellphones. Even
important phone lines at
hospitals get besieged by
them.
It’s no wonder the FCC
By Dirk VanderHart
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
SALEM — Oregon
lawmakers concluded their
work for the year Sunday,
marking the close of the
most remarkable and con-
tentious legislative sessions
in modern memory.
In a day filled with flar-
ing tempers and frequent
confusion,
lawmakers
in the House and Senate
passed a completed state
budget and a raft of policy
bills just after 5:20 p.m.,
well before the midnight
deadline set forth in the
constitution.
Among the bills headed
to Gov. Kate Brown are a
proposal to create a paid
family medical leave insur-
ance program in Oregon, a
law allowing duplexes in
lots zoned for single-family
homes, and ballot referrals
that will ask voters to place
a cap on campaign contri-
butions and hike tobacco
taxes.
Those were just a few of
well over 100 bills — many
of them high-profile goals
for Democrats — lawmak-
ers rushed through in the
final two days.
As the Senate president
and House speaker gaveled
out the session nearly in
unison, lawmakers erupted
in cheers. The doors were
thrown open in both cham-
bers, and lawmakers waved
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OTHER VOICES
has begun beefing up efforts
against robocallers with
its Operation Call It Quits
campaign. And, it offers
consumers suggestions for
how to deal with the calls.
Chief among them? Don’t
answer the phone if you
don’t recognize a telephone
number, and if a robocall
is answered, simply hang
up without saying or doing
anything.
As for the Stopping Bad
Robocalls Act, if it’s greeted
with the same bipartisan
enthusiasm a similar mea-
sure received in the Senate,
it will be approved with lit-
tle difficulty. Then, the two
measures face the tricky
business of reconciling dif-
ferences between them.
Even all this effort is
unlikely to eliminate robo-
calls permanently, unfortu-
nately. There’s big money
to be made in suckering
people, and robocallers will
no doubt find new ways to
reach victims. That said,
both Congress and the FCC
must keep trying.
Oregon Legislative session concludes
for the year with a tense final day
M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
energy it should be agri-
cultural producers and
rural communities. Man-
aged well, our soils,
forests, wetlands and
deeply rooted bunch-
grasses are exemplary
carbon sinks. If we have
2020 vision, the next
go-round of carbon leg-
islation should reward
those stewards of the
land and agro-entrepre-
neurs who are seques-
tering carbon and lower-
ing atmospheric carbon
through careful manage-
ment of working lands.
That should be us.
Congress should keep after robocallers
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
VOLUME 134
agriculture with a prior-
ity given to replacement,
repowering, or retrofit-
ting non-road equipment
to reduce emissions.
Invest in natural and
working lands that pro-
vide carbon sequestra-
tion services, that serve
to reduce or sequester
greenhouse gas emis-
sions, wildfire preven-
tion, efficiency projects,
and soil health, to name
a few.
If anyone should be
leading the way and
benefitting from carbon
sequestration and clean
OPB Photo
Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, waits to enter the floor of the
Senate on the last day of the legislative session. Sen. Boquist
said Sunday morning that no one should have cause to
worry about their safety, after his remarks that state police
should “send bachelors and come heavily armed” if they
tried to apprehend him.
at each other from across
the expanse of the rotunda.
In the Senate, staffers
tossed stacks of paper in
the air in celebration.
But before that revelry,
tensions dominated much
of Sunday — particularly
in the Senate, where law-
makers are still harboring
resentment over a nine-day
boycott by Republicans.
Controversy over com-
ments Sen. Brian Boquist,
R-Dallas, made about state
police ahead of that walk-
out continued to roil the
chamber Sunday, with sev-
eral Democrats requesting
that he stay off the Senate
floor.
Boquist, who’d com-
plied with a similar request
on Saturday, insisted on
attending. He said his
remarks just before the
Republican walkout —
that police should “send
bachelors and come heav-
ily armed” if they tried
to arrest him — were not
an indication he posed a
threat.
“If people are worried,
they shouldn’t be,” he said
Sunday morning. “That’s
why we have state police
here. They do a fine job.”
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