Oregon has a reputation for being “greener” than your typical US state, and in some ways this reputation’s quite appropriate. Back around the ’70s, Oregon pioneered a variety of environmental initiatives which since then have been adopted by many other states. Then there’s the sophisticated public transportation system lacing through the city of Portland, which connects our largest urban hub to many of its suburbs (and which I rely on to do most of my getting around!). Finally, the last couple of years have seen the state government and numerous local governments around Oregon begin to seriously pursue a list of ambitious environmental and climate-saving initiatives.
But talk to one of the many dedicated climate activists in this state, and they’ll tell you Oregon still has a ways to go. Perhaps most glaringly obvious, there’s that tiny little coal plant in the city of Boardman, which spews out a hulking five million tons of carbon each year. Then there are the three liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals which energy giants are trying to build on the Oregon coast, and which would serve as import sites for a new foreign, high-carbon fuel into the western United States. Meanwhile, poorly planned transportation projects intended to accomodate Oregon’s fast-growing population are threatening to negate many of the emissions reductions made so far with new emissions from increased driving.
Oregon is now in a position to continue building on its climate achievements, and truly become a national (perhaps world) leader in providing high living standards on a low-carbon budget. But we’ve got a lot of challenges in front of us, and earlier this week several Oregonian climate activists had the chance to discuss Oregon’s bright green future with one of the state’s foremost political advocates of clean energy: 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradbury.
Convened by the Bill Bradbury for Governor campaign, Tuesday night’s Climate Change Round-Table was a chance for climate activists, the majority of us tending toward the younger end of the age spectrum, to join in a discussion with candidate Bradbury about the most important climate issues facing this state. Questions from the dozens of people watching the Round-Table’s live stream on Facebook turned the discussion in new and sometimes surprising directions. In the span of one hour (watch the live recording here), we covered the Boardman Coal Plant, proposed LNG imports, local farming, and the best ways to encourage renewable energy development. Here are a few of the themes which emerged from this discussion:
1) Ending Oregon’s coal dependence. As a participant in the campaign to shut down Oregon’s only in-state coal plant, I can’t say how good it felt to hear a serious candidate for governor talk about the Boardman Plant as “challenge number one” that Oregon must confront to claim its green future. The coal plant’s owner, Portland General Electric, recently proposed shutting the plant down by 2020, but ten more years of burning coal at Boardman is simply too long. A coalition of environmental groups continues to push for shutting down the plant by 2014 at the latest, and replacing the coal-generated energy from Boardman with renewable electricity sources.
2) Keeping Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) out of the state. During his time as Oregon Secretary of State in 2008, Bill Bradbury became the first elected official chosen at the statewide level to publicly oppose LNG in Oregon. Shipping LNG imports in from parts of the globe like Indonesia, Russia, and the Middle East gives this fuel a much higher carbon footprint than ordinary natural gas. Further, opening Oregon’s gates to LNG would flood western US markets with a new foreign fossil fuel that has the potential to displace investments in truly renewable energy sources. As if that weren’t enough proposed LNG pipelines would cut through and permanently degrade some of Oregon’s most fertile farmland which we need to produce food for a sustainable, local economy. A clean energy future for Oregon is absolutely contingent on keeping LNG out of the state.
3) Investing in renewable energy and efficiency. Oregon has already become a national center for clean energy industries – a bright spot in grim economic times. A continued committment from our next governor to jobs-creating renewable energy and efficiency programs will be essential to weathering the rest of the recession, and putting Oregonians back to work. Prompted by questions from those watching the Round-Table on Facebook, Mr. Bradbury discussed some of the hitches renewable energy tax credits have encountered in Oregon, which need to be smoothed out to create the most sustainable programs possible. Yet everyone at the table clearly agreed that green energy development is important not only to Oregon’s environment, but our economy as well.
One thing which struck me during the conversation with Mr. Bradbury is that to maintain its position as a leader in all things green, Oregon will have to take this leadership to a new level. With states and cities across the country entering the clean tech race and reducing greenhouse emissions, and national climate legislation on the horizon, the competition to capture the green market is a lot more fierce than it was a few years ago.
With a governor committed to winning this competition, Oregon can stay on the cutting edge, attracting clean tech businesses and creating thousands of jobs retrofitting homes and buildings for greater efficiency. It’s no time to rest on our laurels. Oregon must demonstrate its committment to cleaner energy by phasing out the Boardman Coal Plant by 2014. We must protect the clean energy market from a money grab by the liquefied natural gas industry. And we must create government-supported programs to develop clean energy and make our use of energy more efficient.
President Obama has said, correctly, that the country which leads the clean energy race will dominate the world economy in the years ahead. Likewise, the states which begin the transition to clean energy as fast as possible will be positioning themselves to become centers of prosperity in a transformed United States of America. It gives me hope for my home state that at least one serious candidate for governor understands this reality deeply. It’s my hope that, whichever candidate for governor wins the election this year, they’ll continuing leading Oregon toward the bright green future I caught a glimpse of on Tuesday.
It’s really important to recognize that Oregon has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and but has a strong emerging clean energy sector. Farming isn’t going to recover the economy, tourism probably won’t, logging and fishing are shrinking industries – these industries do not have the growth potential that clean energy does. So even as there is opposition from folks in different parts of the state, we may as well ask them – do you have a better solution to create long term jobs that doesn’t deplete Oregon’s natural resources?
It’s really exciting that Bill Bradbury is running for Governor and is so supportive. Keep up the good work and good luck!
With so much talk in the media of “100 years of gas” in the US and Canadian shales, I am surprised there is such a push for LNG terminals. What rationale has been given for building them?
The rational given for building LNG terminals in Oregon is that the Northwest needs to “diversify” our sources of gas, and that we need LNG to meet a growing demand for gas. This reasoning is frankly ludicrous, in part for the reasons rmarg brings up. The proposed Palomar LNG pipeline alone would be designed to carry more gas than the current demand from Oregon and Washington combined; there’s just no way to justify a need for this much gas in the Northwest. It’s much more likely that the LNG companies see their proposed Oregon projects as the easiest way to increase the amount of gas they can deliver to the California market (California has already rejected multiple LNG import terminals off its coast). Or the companies may be planning to build these “import” terminals only to convert them to export terminals once they are built, allowing gas companies to sell North American gas on the global market (where many countries pay much more for their gas than we do in the US). There’s precedent for building an LNG import terminal and quickly converting it to an export hub, so this suggestion isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound. The certainty is that the Northwest (and for that matter the US) doesn’t need LNG, it’s a bad deal for our environment and economy, and the companies proposing LNG projects in Oregon need to pack up and go home!