SalemWatch: Looking Back at the 75th Legislative Assembly
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The 75th Oregon Legislative Session Ends We’re almost done. Members of the 75th Legislative Assembly have gone home, calling an end to their session on June 29th. Now we’re working with the office of the Governor, who has 30 weekdays to sign or veto bills. By August 7th we’ll know the final tally. So, how did the environment fare this session?
Unfortunately, legislators also took steps back on Oregon’s dedication to a clean energy future, cutting energy standards and incentives, and passed a pork-filled transportation package that does more to encourage sprawl than expand choices or enhance freedom for the million Oregonians who cannot drive.
Legislators created many worthwhile laws. Yet the science is crystal clear, especially on climate change: our work is not yet done. We have the responsibility to do more to create a legacy that makes us proud. We're already meeting with legislators and coalition partners, making plans for the 2010 and 2011 legislative sessions. For now – thank you to all of you who spoke up this session, letting your voice be heard. Citizen voices are one of the most powerful forces in the state capitol, and led to several hard-fought victories. Onward!
-Evan Manvel, Legislative Affairs Director, OLCV/OCN Here are our six OCN Priorities for a Healthy Oregon, and how they fared... VICTORY! Marine Reserves Bill Passed
House Bill 3013 outlines a detailed plan and timeline to complete evaluation of six potential marine reserve sites recommended by the Governor’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council. The consensus bill establishes two pilot marine reserve projects at Otter Rock near Depoe Bay and Redfish Rocks near Port Orford and prescribes a process to evaluate the potential for reserves in four other areas of the coast. The bill outlines a balanced and diverse procedure for the planning of Oregon’s new marine reserves, including the development of regional community groups that will assist with the shaping of potential marine reserve sites: Cape Falcon north of Manzanita, Cascade Head north of Lincoln City, Cape Perpetua south of Yachats and Cape Arago-Seven Devils south of Coos Bay. Legislators also passed funding for marine reserves in various state agency budgets.
House Bill 2220 will allow the creation of mobile boat check stations to allow boats to be inspected and cleaned if needed, to prevent the introduction of invasive snails and mussels into Oregon's waterways. HB 2220 also increases the penalties for intentionally introducing invasive species, something that can happen when fisherman stock a favorite non-native fish in the wrong lake. Such an action required a $6 million eradication effort in Southern Oregon's Diamond Lake just three years ago.
House Bill 2020 sets up an earmarked fund to respond quickly to invasive species outbreaks. Quick response to eradicate invasive species can save Oregon taxpayers millions of dollars, and prevent expensive damages to key industries such as Oregon’s billion-dollar-a-year nursery industry.
Senate Bill 571 increases the penalties for transporting or introducing live invasive fish into bodies of water in which they don't belong. Legislators also passed several other bills addressing invasive species - from fighting feral swine to adopting model invasive weed management laws, from inspecting ballast water to improving the structure of Oregon's invasives species council. No other environmental issue had as broad support this session.
Implement Global Warming Solutions House Bill 2186 is the nation's first legislatively-adopted low-carbon fuel standard! It allows the state's Department of Environmental Quality to require fuel providers to cut global-warming pollution from fuel 10 percent by 2020. However, it has a sunset date of December 31, 2015, meaning it will need to be reauthorized by future legislatures. The bill also studies several other potential actions to fight climate change.
Senate Bill 101 will ensure electric utilities would not enter into new long-term contracts with dirty coal plants, and future long-term contracts are for energy sources that are at least as clean as natural gas generating facilities. The bill has several exemptions.
Senate Bill 79 will cut energy waste from buildings 10 to 25 percent by ensuring building codes are updated to increase energy efficiency. This will save Oregon families and businesses millions of dollars and increase Oregon’s energy independence.
Sadly, our fourth priority bill, Senate Bill 80 - the signature environmental bill of the session - died after months of intense negotiations. As introduced, the bill would have helped create 40,000 jobs by implementing a carbon cap-and-trade system in Oregon. Even a completely different version of the bill, to simply direct state agencies to evaluate how to meet the state's statutory climate goals, was killed by the state's largest polluters.
In its final days, the Legislature passed House Bill 3369, The Water Resources Investment Act of 2009. The bill is a historic water package that includes standards for new storage projects, conservation efforts, and water planning. The bill requires the Oregon Water Resources Department to develop an integrated statewide water resources policy that recognizes impending climate-related challenges, creates a funding pool intended for loans on water resources projects, and provides funding to help reduce the conflict between fish and irrigation needs in the Umatilla River basin. The Governor is deciding whether to sign it. A second OCN priority bill - to stabilize funding for the Water Resources Department - was scuttled.
Enhance Transportation Choices
Ensure New Energy Supplies are Responsible
Major Threats to a Healthy Oregon
Most notably we defeated House Bill 3058, a bill that would have fast-tracked the siting of dirty liquefied natural gas facilities. LNG emits at least 26 percent more global warming pollution over its life cycle than domestic gas. We also defeated some bad amendments to the Oregon's clean energy incentives (the Business Energy Tax Credit), and proposals to weaken the state's landmark land use laws.
As mentioned above, legislators passed an unbalanced transportation package. They also passed a weakening of Oregon's renewable energy standard - House Bill 2940. Under that bill, which we are working to get vetoed, Oregon's clean energy requirements would be cut by 25 percent by counting old biomass plants as new renewable energy. |
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| Other Bills - and Thanks! |
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Check the OLCV blog!
As noted, legislators passed many other bills protecting the environment. We held a press conference just before the end of session outlining those bills, and have posted a list of bills on our blog.
Because there are several hundred bills passed each session, not all the bills are listed.
As always, hip people subscribe to our blog feed, and stay up to date with all the latest! Many Thanks to Melissa, Phaedra, and Jennifer!One final note - during the session OCN's work would not have been possible but for three wonderful people: OCN Coordinator Melissa Chapman, who brought you SalemWatch each week and spearheaded our grassroots work, and Policy Fellows Phaedra Booth and Jennifer Dressen, who were a huge help to OCN and our various partner groups in the capitol throughout the session. Many, many thanks!
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Split: One big bad bill, one smaller positive bill passed
