Defend The Oregon Climate Protection Program

SOCAN encourages YOU to submit comments on the adjusted rules. | Deadline extended to October 13 | Submit comments by emailing: Climate.2023@deq.oregon.gov

State agencies responded to Governor Brown’s 2020 Executive Order 20-04 by developing programs that address the current existential climate crisis by developing programs within their authority that reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the state. However, the ‘rubber meets the road’ for such programs when rules are developed to effectuate them.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) developed a Climate Protection Program that was approved last year by the Environmental Quality Commission (EQC). The Rulemaking Advisory Committee that the DEQ then established to advise them on the development of rules to actualize that policy was composed of 14 members.  Of these 12 represented energy corporations and just two represented the constituency of climate conscious and concerned Oregonians. Meanwhile none represented the vulnerable communities most affected by the climate pollution that fossil fuel use produces.

The result of this committee’s input is a proposed Climate Protection Program (CPP) vastly compromised (i.e., weakened) from that originally proposed by DEQ and approved by the Environmental Quality Commission.  As a result, it is critical that Oregonians, especially rural Oregonians, respond to the adjusted CPP proposal with comments. SOCAN thus encourages rural Southern Oregonians to submit comments on the adjusted rules before the deadline has been extended until October 13th. The target address for comments is: Climate.2023@deq.oregon.gov.

The coalition of climate conscious activists that is promoting meaningful  state action is urging all concerned Oregonians to submit comments on the proposed adjustment. It is, as always, especially important that they receive comments from rural Oregonians such as SOCAN activists, i.e., you.  Every rural comment is probably worth 10 from Portland; you are valuable.

The threat areas on which we would like individuals to comment are:
(1) the allowance of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) inclusion from out-of-state sources as an offset for emissions from methane (i.e., natural) gas distributed in Oregon,

(2) the rigor of industrial emissions reduction reductions imposed through the Best Available Emissions Reduction (BAER) technology, and

(3) the acceptance of Hydrogen as an emissions reduction option.

For those wishing to view it, video of a recent Oregon Environmental Council webinar addressing this issue is available here (passcode *xwLo=2H). Meanwhile, the slide deck from that presentation (from where critical links can be extracted) is available here  The deadline for comments is: September 22, 2023, 4:00 p.m. at Climate.2023@deq.oregon.gov.

However, it is not necessary to do all that homework if you have little time. Please just send a comment urging DEQ to return to its original Climate Protection Plan and ignore efforts by the gas utilities to bypass the Community Climate Investment (CCI) fund by incorporating out-of-state Renewable Natural gas into their product and evading the CCI focus on promoting social justice in Oregon, insist that the Best Available Emissions Reduction rules keep industry on a steep downward trajectory in emissions, and encourage the position that only hydrogen produced through electrolysis using renewable energy should be acceptable.

Those wishing more information can attend: an EQC public forum Sept. 14, 2023, 1:45 pm and/or a DEQ Public Forum on September 18^th.

Finally, a draft of the comments that will be submitted by SOCAN are available here.