After a three year delay following a lawsuit by oil and gas companies, the Oregon Climate Protection Program (CPP) was restored by DEQ and the Environmental Quality Commission. The CPP aims to reduce 90% of harmful emissions from the state’s largest polluters by 2050 through providing large polluters who don’t reach state deadlines with the opportunity to purchase Community Climate Investment Credits. These funds will then go to marginalized communities for climate resiliency projects which will themselves reduce emissions by funding non-profits doing weatherization, heat pumps, and clean energy projects. A strong Climate Protection Program will reduce emissions, create jobs, protect community health, mitigate against climate chaos, and provide critical environmental justice investments to Oregon’s most vulnerable communities.
Although climate activists did not get everything we had hoped for in the details of the new rulings in the restoration process (including another 3 year delay in actual implementation), this is a good step for the state of Oregon, especially given that national climate protections are likely to be weakened.
An article in the mainstream Oregon Capital Chronicle summarizes a few more details about this decision.
