By Oregon Business & Industry,
What happened: On March 11, OBI Senior Policy Director Sharla Moffett testified before the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment in opposition to HB 3477, which would reset Oregon’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Bill details: HB 3477 would establish a goal to reduce emissions 95% below 1990 levels by 2050. Oregon’s current goal, set in 2020 by former Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order 20-04, calls for a reduction of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
Problems with the bill: The carbon intensity of Oregon’s economy is already very low – only 43rd nationally, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Given Oregon’s modest climate footprint, policies that reduce emissions further will have a minimal impact on global emissions and climate change. On the other hand, an ambitious resetting of the state’s greenhouse gas goals would reopen dozens of state agency rulemakings and create further uncertainty for businesses.
Why it matters: Oregon’s private sector creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and generates the tax revenue upon which state and local governments rely. However, Oregon is a very heavily regulated state already, and its business climate has been eroding for years. According to CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business rankings, Oregon is the third least business-friendly state in the nation. Adopting HB 3477 would further erode Oregon’s business climate for minimal environmental benefit, incentivizing businesses to invest in other states. The result: fewer jobs and less tax revenue.
Learn more: Click the video to the right to watch Sharla’s testimony. Read OBI’s Oregon Competitiveness Agenda for dozens of policy proposals that would improve the state’s business climate.
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