Looks like Oregon is trying to catch up to Washington and California.
New political group formed to lead crusade against climate change
Created on Thursday, 02 July 2015 10:49 | Written by Steve Law | 
TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO - At Sokol Blosser Winery in Dayton, Ore., climate change is not just an environmental issue, it's a business issue. Alex Blosser, shown here, helps run the family-owned winery.
Oregon environmentalists have quietly formed a new political arm to spearhead a game-changing campaign against global warming, such as a tax on carbon emissions.
The new group, Renew Oregon, has raised more than $1 million and bulked up with ten full-time organizers and other staff.
“Basically, think of it as an organizing arm around climate for the environmental community,” says Doug Moore, executive director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. “It’s quite an undertaking.”
The Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Oregon Environmental Council, Climate Solutions and business supporters have worked for the past year and a half to raise money and create Renew Oregon, realizing the task was bigger than any one of them could accomplish on their own, Moore says.
“We’re aiming to be the leading voice for climate in Oregon,” says Brad Reed, Renew Oregon’s newly named communications director. “We’re trying to decide what the best path forward is, whether it’s the Legislature or at the ballot.”
Progressive businessman Nik Blosser helped organize the coalition, and recruited former gay rights organizer Thomas Wheatley to direct Renew Oregon. Blosser says he wanted a leader from outside the environmental movement who could bring fresh eyes to the issues.
Climate change is a business issue for Oregon's wine industry, says Blosser, board chairman of his family's Sokol Blosser Winery. "We have bloom this year a full month earlier than usual."
No state has more environmentally minded voters than Oregon, Moore contends, yet that’s not always reflected in the Legislature. One example fresh on the minds of environmentalists: the low-carbon fuels bill requiring a 10 percent reduction in carbon emissions from motor vehicle fuel over the next decade. Environmentalists’ top priority in the 2015 legislative session, the bill was nearly derailed when oil companies and Republicans convinced Democratic leaders to jettison it after it was signed into law, as a trade-off to secure a transportation funding package.
That bill is a relatively small step compared to what’s truly needed to prevent significant global warming. Most experts say that requires levying a fee or tax on carbon emissions, such as a British Columbia-style carbon tax or a market-based cap-and-trade system such as deployed in Europe, California and the Northeastern states.
Such major changes would require ballot measures in Oregon, says James Moore, a political scientist at Pacific University. That’s because tax measures require supermajorities to pass in the Legislature, and anti-tax groups often gather signatures to force a public vote on them if they are passed by lawmakers.
Renew Oregon founders realize they need to shift public opinion, so they’re hiring field organizers to do public education and other work around the state. That strategy is similar to what Basic Rights Oregon did to help shift public opinion here on gay marriage. Wheatley is that group's former organizing director and recently left the national group Freedom to Marry, which is disbanding after the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage across the land.
“This is going to be a long-term effort,” says Andrea Durbin, executive director of Oregon Environmental Council.
“We want to see Oregon lead on climate change,” Durbin says. However, “the strategy’s still being developed.”
Despite Oregonians’ green image, environmental issues still don’t register among their top concerns, says James Moore, the political scientist. “I think there’s a real opportunity here, but education is the key,” he says. “If this group can get the high tech community to buy into this, the Intels of the world, there might be something to it.”
Blosser is a founding director of the Oregon Business Association, which includes such companies.
"If we're going to seriously address this issue, we're up against some of the deepest pockets in the planet," Blosser says, referring to the oil industry.
"We're on the right side of history," he says. "We just need to find the policy that's going to do the most good and the least harm."
Organizers hope to enlist broad support from the faith community, business sector and others, and are in talks with Catholic leaders in light of the pope’s recent initiative to avert climate change, Durbin says.
Renew Oregon had a “soft launch” in late March when it began its digital media campaign, Reed says. Its Facebook page already has logged more than 16,000 “likes.”
The group expects to make a more formal public launch soon.
While Renew Oregon tries to sow the seeds for future battles on climate change, it may face the need to play defense.
Oil companies have tenaciously fought low-carbon fuel standards in California and Oregon, and may bankroll a referendum campaign to kill the measure at the polls.
Doug Moore declined to say if Renew Oregon would take a leadership role in such a campaign if it's needed.
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