OLCV e-bulletin: Environmental priorities in tough economic times

Making the environment count in tough economic times
 
 
Oregonians are facing what many are calling the state’s worst budget challenge in almost thirty years. Environmental advocates, including OLCV’s Legislative Affairs Director Evan Manvel, are working hard to keep environmental solutions in the forefront during this legislative session. We know that rebuilding our economy requires the creation of a sustainable energy economy and green jobs, and that Oregon is the right place to do this.
 
So, how bad is it? Click here to read more.
 
Cap and Trade in the spotlight
 
 
A University of Oregon study released Tuesday reports that climate change could cost Oregonians $3.3 billion a year starting in 2020. We need swift action now to combat global warming. Legislators will be looking at several bills during the session that can help Oregon reduce greenhouse gas emissions, become more energy independent, and create green jobs.
 
One part of the solution is Senate Bill 80, known to many as cap and trade. In the last couple of weeks, SB 80 has been the subject of a slew of op-eds, editorials and news stories in newspapers around the state. The bill is an integral part of the Governor’s climate change package, which also includes proposals to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. Simply put, SB 80 would set a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that could be emitted in the state. Those emissions would be equated with credits that could be traded among emitters to comply with the cap. 40 percent of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector.
 
SB 80 also invests in energy efficiency, green jobs, and local energy sources. Governor Kulongoski is working to get legislators to understand the far-reaching effects SB 80 and, in a rare move, testified in support of the bill. He also wrote an opinion piece published in the Oregonian last weekend. Below are links to that piece and two others that have run recently in support of SB 80:
 
Oregon's role essential to climate change agenda, Guest opinion by Governor Ted Kulongoski, The Oregonian, Feb. 14, 2009

 
Blazing another trail, Guest opinion by Oregon Representative Tobias Read (D) and local sustainable business leader Tom Kelly, The Oregonian, Feb. 10, 2009.
 
Economic Downturn No Reason to Delay Emissions Reductions, Columnist Bob Doppelt, Salem Statesman Journal, Feb. 10, 2009
 
ACT NOW TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING
 
 
Remember, there are many bills this session that would build Oregon’s green economy and address global warming. Another key piece of climate change legislation currently under consideration is House Bill 2186, which is essential to helping the state reach greenhouse gas reduction goals passed in the 2007 session.
 
Big business investing a lot in the fight against the bill. Your voice is crucial! Please take one minute to send the message to your legislators urging them to pass HB 2186.
 
Big Look Task Force’s HB 2229 threatens Oregon’s hard-earned land-use protections

As you may remember, the Big Look Task Force was appointed by the Governor in 2005 to assess Oregon’s land-use planning program and make any recommendations for changes in the program to the legislature. Those recommendations are now being considered by our elected representatives in the form of House Bill 2229.
We strongly oppose a key part of HB 2229: its proposal to allow the re-zoning of our farm and forest land. Under the proposed legislation, if two counties agree on a re-designation of land , they would have the power to make it so. Such a proposal will invite rural sprawl into areas that are currently protected, threatening not only Oregon’s thriving agricultural industry but also our need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the state, since sprawl will kill local farms that provide Oregonians with homegrown eats.

In a meeting last week, five county planners said that this effort to extend new land re-designation authority “inordinately complicated” and “unworkable.” Read about it here. Legislators will be holding a series of work sessions on the bill over the next couple of weeks.

For more information on the Big Look Task Force, visit the 1000 Friends of Oregon website.

Let your representatives know that you oppose the two-county proposal in HB 2229.
Wine and dine with hundreds of your fellow advocates April 24
 
Last April, nearly 900 of your friends from Oregon’s conservationist, political and sustainable business communities wined, dined and celebrated their commitment to Oregon’s environmental legacy. Join us at the Oregon Convention Center on April 24 for OLCV's Twelfth Annual Dinner for the Environment.
 
This year, we welcome Keynote Speaker Dan Kammen, Distinguished Professor of Energy at UC Berkeley, and Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Kammen is a contributing member to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that earned the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
 
No-host cocktails at 5:30; Dinner at 7pm. Click here for more information or to purchase tickets.
 
 
OLCV welcomes a new communications director
 
 
Toby Van Fleet joined the OLCV staff in February as the full-time communications director. During the 2008 election, Toby worked on the communications team for Defend Oregon, which defeated all seven of Bill Sizemore and Kevin Mannix's ballot measures. Prior to her work in politics, Toby was a reporter and spent more than a year covering environmental issues for the Portland Tribune. She also logged more than a decade working in the region's organic and local food movements. Toby has scuba dived in the Andaman Sea, ridden her bicycle from Corvallis to the Canadian Rockies and backpacked throughout the Western U.S. You can email Toby at toby@olcv.org.
Tresa Horney, OLCV's previous communications director and e-bulletin editor, is now organizing the Multnomah County chapter as well as continuing to direct our local efforts in Lincoln and Marion counties. Among other acheivements, Tresa helped to make the e-bulletin a more effective medium for communicating OLCV's good works and increased our readership substantially. Thank you, Tresa!
 

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