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Govs Get It Done: Gov. Brown Takes Broad Action on Climate Change

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“Let me be clear. I am not backing down.”

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown yesterday issued an executive order that outlines state-level steps to combat climate change. The executive order sets new greenhouse gas emissions goals based on current science and directs state agencies to put new measures into effect to reach them. The sweeping climate order also covers power companies’ wildfire risk, building and home appliance energy efficiency standards, electric vehicle charging stations at state buildings, and food waste.
By signing this executive order, Gov. Brown is fulfilling a promise she made to Oregonians to not back down on climate change after Republicans in the legislature walked out of the legislative session three times in the past 10 months to kill a similar cap-and-trade proposal.
Read more about Gov. Brown’s sweeping climate order below:
Associated Press: Oregon Governor takes sweeping action to cut global warming
In an end run around Republican legislators, Oregon’s Democratic governor ordered the state on Tuesday to lower greenhouse gas emissions, directing a state agency to set and enforce caps on pollution from industry and transportation fuels.
Gov. Kate Brown’s sweeping executive order, one of the boldest in the nation, aims to reduce carbon emissions to at least 45% below 1990 levels by 2035 and 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. The order more than doubles the goal of a clean fuels program, marking the most ambitious target in the country, Brown said.
“I’ve heard it loud and clear from our young people in Oregon: Climate action is crucial and urgent,” Brown said, surrounded by students. “If we adults don’t take action right away, it is the next generation that will pay the price.”
Republicans lawmakers, a minority in the Legislature, staged a walkout during this year’s short session to sabotage a bill that aimed for many of the same climate goals. The boycott caused the session to end two days early on Friday, with only three bills passed and more than 100 dying, including the climate measure.
Portland Business Journal: Gov. Kate Brown signs sweeping order on climate
Thwarted on legislation by a Republican walkout, Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday ordered a range of new regulations and initiatives to tackle climate change.
Brown’s 14-page order mirrors a failed cap and trade bill in capping greenhouse gas emission at 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2035, and then 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
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In addition to enforcing declining caps on emissions from three sectors — transportation fuels, natural gas and large industrial sources — the order calls for increased energy efficiency in new buildings and household appliances.
In a major move, the Clean Fuels Program that currently targets a 10 percent improvement in carbon intensity by 2025 would be extended to 2035, with a 25 percent target. That’s even more stringent than California’s similar plan.
Salem Statesman-Journal: Gov. Kate Brown directs Oregon agencies to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Gov. Kate Brown has directed state agencies to cut pollution, including from major industrial sources, fuel and natural gas.
Her order, unveiled Tuesday, is meant to compensate for the Legislature’s failure to pass a comprehensive program to shrink the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“I’ve heard it loud and clear from our young people in Oregon: climate action is crucial and urgent,” Brown said in a statement. “If we adults don’t take action right away, it is the next generation that will pay the price. We owe it to them to do our part to ensure that the globe they inherit is on a better trajectory than the one it’s on today.”
KDRV: Governor Brown signs executive order directing Oregon agencies to enforce strict carbon goals
After a second legislative session failed to produce a successful cap-and-trade climate bill following two walkouts by Republican lawmakers, Governor Kate Brown announced on Tuesday the executive action she intends to take instead.
The infusion of $5 million to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Monday marked the preamble to Governor Brown’s efforts to single-handedly enact more stringent carbon emission standards in Oregon.
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Backed by a group of youth climate activists, Brown began by describing the impact that climate change would have on younger generations if not addressed by leaders.
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Brown said that the executive order would be “sweeping and comprehensive,” directing state agencies to tackle climate change by setting new science-based reduction goals.
“As a state, we will pursue every option available under existing law to combat the effects of climate change and put Oregon on a path we can be proud to leave behind for our children,” Brown said.
[…]
Under the executive order, the Oregon DEQ would set and enforce more stringent “sector-specific” carbon standards for the transportation and natural gas industries, as well as other large industrial polluters. The caps set would grow lower over time in an effort to meet the state’s reduction goals.
For the state as a whole, those goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2035, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
OPB: Gov. Kate Brown Orders State Action On Climate Change
Oregon Republicans killed cap and trade this year. Now, they’ll have to contend with cap and reduce.
Closing a loop on a pledge she made last year, Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order Tuesday that aims to sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions with a full-court press by government agencies.
The 14-page order comes less than a week after a Republican walkout killed Senate Bill 1530, Democrats’ signature proposal for a cap-and-trade system in Oregon. It contains ambitions that are at once equal to and much broader than that bill.
“The executive branch has a responsibility to the electorate, and a scientific, economic, and moral imperative to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the order says, “and to reduce the worst risks of climate change and ocean acidification for future generations.”