Wednesday, December 15, 2021
A4
OPINION
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Oregon cap
and trade
plan coming
to a vote
O
regon’s Environmen-
tal Quality Commission is
scheduled to vote on Dec.
16 on new rules that will give Ore-
gon a version of cap-and-trade cli-
mate action.
The goal is to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. A state summary of
the plan runs 364 pages. Basically
the proposal is to set an enforce-
able “declining limit, or cap, on
greenhouse gas emissions from fos-
sil fuels used throughout Oregon,
including diesel, gasoline, natural
gas and propane used in transpor-
tation, residential, commercial and
industrial settings.”
What will that mean to you?
It means Oregon moves away
more swiftly from fossil fuels and
toward more renewable sources
of energy and toward cleaner air.
The hope is that it would benefit
the state and the planet as a whole.
There will likely be new green
jobs created. Consumers may end
up saving money if they switch
to electric vehicles. Some electric
heat pumps are much more efficient
than the gas furnace consumers
may have in their homes now. It is
hoped that investments in low-in-
come and minority communities
will help protect them from cost
increases or maybe even save them
money.
But there will be costs. An anal-
ysis prepared for the state suggests
due to adoption of this plan there
might be an increase in price per
gallon of gas of between 10 cents
to 36 cents between 2025 and 2050.
Diesel fuel might face similar
increases. Natural gas will likely
see the biggest price bump, perhaps
doubling the cost by 2050 com-
pared to a price in 2022. Electricity
costs may also increase.
The impacts will likely go far
beyond direct energy costs to con-
sumers. The Oregon Business and
Industry Association pointed out
consumers will get energy cost
increases passed along to them for
other goods. Old ways of doing
business will be disrupted. Some
businesses may leave the state
or contract. Jobs may be lost, as
well, particularly in the natural gas
industry.
When big changes are made in
Oregon, they usually come through
the Legislature or through ballot
measures. This is coming through
executive action and rule making.
That seems like the only way Ore-
gon was going to move forward on
such a plan, but it’s hard to argue it
is the best way to maximize public
input into it.
Where have all the Republicans gone?
OTHER VIEWS
George Mead
I am a progressive Republican, a rare
breed, one who “favors or advocates prog-
ress, change, improvement, or reform, as
opposed to wishing to maintain things as
they are.”
This harkens back to Teddy Roosevelt.
Albert Quie, former governor of Min-
nesota, Jan. 4, 1979, to Jan. 3, 1983, and,
member of the Congress House of Rep-
resentatives, Feb. 18, 1958, to Jan. 3,
1979, said: “We are willing to let the fed-
eral government assume primary respon-
sibility for defense and other priorities
for which states are not equipped. The
problem in the last 15 years or so is that
well-meaning federal officials have not
recognized the distinction between ‘fed-
eral’ and ‘national.’ They have often for-
gotten that education is a partnership.”
The rub, of course, is that more and
more federal involvement comes by way
of mandates without the dollars to com-
ply. Or, dollars are provided with so many
strings attached that unique state and local
circumstances get ignored. Laws and reg-
ulations are written to apply to a mythical
“average” state.
The Declaration of Independence
states: “We hold these truths to be self-ev-
ident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed.”
The Constitution of the United States
says: “We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tran-
quility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general Welfare, and secure
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and
our Posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of
America.”
Where have all the Republicans gone?
They certainly do not appear to be inter-
ested is almost all the things the two doc-
uments state. Listening to the Repub-
lican career politicians speaking in all
manner of venues, I haven’t heard com-
ments from them about “domestic tran-
quility” or “the general welfare.” I have
seen the equivalent of plastic bobblehead
dolls nodding violently to their quasi-de-
ity as if that matters. Nothing they are
anxious about, or advocate, seem to have
anything to do with forming a “more per-
fect union” or “establishing justice.”
Public schooling started very early in
colonial times by the citizens. This was
then followed by the states, counties,
cities and towns long before any politi-
cian sitting around in Washington, D.C.,
decided they knew better than those folk
what primary education ought to be.
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Enterprise, OR 97828
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
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VOLUME 134
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P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
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Contents copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.
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Somehow, the folk in Washington, D.C.,
felt they knew more about creating pub-
lic schooling than all the folk in the orig-
inal colonies, the states, counties, towns
and cities who did that. Instead, the pub-
lic school systems had to be homoge-
nized like the milk we currently buy,
instead of letting the cream float to the
top.
At the same time all the aspects of
higher education were created by the
same folk outside of Washington, D.C.
The total of institutions created are 1,714
— trade schools to doctorate universities.
Unfortunately the private and public
institutions have allowed greed to over-
whelm their good sense as they accepted
massive amounts of Pell grants and
jacked up the their tuition because of the
massive inflow of dollars. The program
was planned as a feel-good program
with no strings attached vis a vis the cost
of tuition. The usual lack of not asking
what the unintended results might bring
became the ever higher costs for educa-
tion. Congress is still willing to add ever
increasing dollars into the program with
the same lack of planning. Where have
all the Republicans gone?
It would appear that the national party
is more interested in the creation of zom-
bie-politicians, infected by the T-virus,
who wander about moaning and groan-
ing rather than addressing those actions
stated in either the Declaration of Inde-
pendence or the Constitution.
———
George Mead, a retired anthropologist,
lives in La Grande.
General Manager, Karrine Brogoitti, kbrogoitti@eomediagroup.com
Editor, Ronald Bond, rbond@wallowa.com
Reporter, Bill Bradshaw, bbradshaw@wallowa.com
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