Oregon's 11 Fugitive Senators Remain at Large, Stalling Key Bill

(Bloomberg) -- Six days after they went AWOL to sabotage a bill to curb carbon emissions in Oregon, 11 lawmakers are still hiding out -- in the latest, and weirdest, flashpoint in the U.S. divide over climate change.

The Republicans fled the capitol in Salem to prevent the senate from reaching a quorum to vote on a cap-and-trade program similar to California’s. Democratic Governor Kate Brown threatened to dispatch state police to round up the missing senators. One, Brian Boquist, responded by saying the authorities should “send bachelors and come heavily armed.”

To make matters more bizarre, it’s not clear they actually needed to bolt. According to top Democrats, there may not be enough support among their own ranks in the chamber to pass the legislation. Whether that was the case when the Republicans skedaddled is a mystery.

Whatever the backstory, the consequences could be dire for bills other than the one behind the ruckus, including funding measures for crucial operations such as wildfire response and prevention. They can’t move forward if at least some of the truants don’t return before the session ends.

“The Oregon situation is extremely troubling,” said Kit Kennedy, senior director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s a breakdown in the democratic process.”

In many ways, Oregon is a microcosm of a polarized U.S., a state where left-versus-right, urban-versus-rural politics often bubble up, though the tension there hasn’t spurred quite such radical action before.

The Republicans apparently saw no other way to stop something they view as an assault on their constituents, with a disproportionately negative effect on loggers and farmers. Democrats are in the legislative majority and many local companies, including Nike Inc., back the cap-and-trade plan, which would impose carbon-emissions limits and force businesses that exceed them to buy or trade for a diminishing pool of allowances to pollute.

The house passed the measure on June 17. The capitol building was briefly closed five days later after militia groups threatened to join a protest, though demonstration ended up being peaceful, attended by fewer than 100 people.

By Tuesday, the senate president, Peter Courtney, was on the floor declaring the bill pretty much dead. Rick Osborn, a spokesman for Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, said it didn’t even have enough Democratic votes last week. Climate-action advocates who had been keeping a tally said that was baloney.

Activists protested. The governor said on Twitter, “Are Senate Democrats against climate change legislation or are they against democracy?” Stuck, the legislature adjourned until June 30.

GoFundMe Account

As wildly as it’s playing out, the clash underscores America’s conflicted attitude and approach to global warming. Democratic presidential candidates have used the threat of climate change as a rallying cry and several states are moving forward with aggressive programs. The Trump administration has actively worked to roll back Obama policies to curb emissions and continues to question the impact -- in some cases the existence -- of the problem.

In Oregon, a blue state with vast stretches of relatively lightly populated red, Oregon Business for Climate lobbied for the cap-and-trade proposal, which aims to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. There was a crack last week when Dutch Bros., a coffee chain based in Grants Pass in the southern part of the state, pulled out of the coalition, saying the company was “dedicated to being neutral on all issues related to politics and religion.”

Meanwhile, supporters of the absent legislators set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for them, wherever they are, and donations had reached more than $35,000 on Tuesday. It’s uncertain whether Oregon law would allow the senators, who face fines of up to $500 a day, to accept the money.

Kate Gillem, a spokeswoman for Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger, who represents a district around Grants Pass, said she didn’t know where he and his colleagues were holed up but that there has been “ongoing communication” with Democrats. (In case any of the 11 had crossed the border into Washington, Governor Jay Inslee, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said on Twitter that they weren’t welcome.)

The skipping-town tactic has been deployed elsewhere by state lawmakers affronted by issues important to the majority. In 2011, Democrats in Wisconsin escaped to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum for a vote on anti-union legislation. In 2003, Democrats left Texas for Oklahoma to avoid voting on a plan to redraw the U.S. congressional districts to Republican advantage.

In the end, both bills eventually passed, with Republicans finding workarounds. The resulting laws were challenged in litigation that lasted for years.

Every day without a quorum in Oregon could threaten future state operations, though the governor has said she’s preparing for a special session in July. “It’s anything but business as usual, because we’re not able to do business on any issue,” said Rick Osborn, a spokesman for Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, who represents part of the Portland metro area.

According to Gillem, the carbon bill has been been misbranded. “It’s a gas and emissions tax, and it hasn’t been portrayed that way. It would mean an additional $50 a month for a family of four in this state, in gasoline costs and natural gas and electric bills. That adds up to $600 a year, and it’s not chump change.”

Oregon had seemed to have been on the way to being part of a trend. Last week, New York passed a bill to set the country’s most aggressive clean-energy target, more than triple the state’s solar capacity and unleash wind power off the coast, joining a movement for 100% clean-power goals.

Puerto Rico approved legislation in April; California, Hawaii and New Mexico have made pledges to do the same. The U.S. issued a report Monday showing that 29 states and the District of Columbia set renewable targets last year, accounting for almost two-thirds of all of the electricity sold in the U.S. So far this year, at least four states and D.C. have raised their targets.

None of the climate-action moves will come, of course, without costs. The Oregon Legislative Revenue Office said the bill would force significant change in “much of the energy sector and the state economy.” That’s a reason senate Republicans will continue to resist it, according to the minority leader.

“I’ve been threatened with being arrested. I’ve been threatened with fines. I’ve been threatened with election violations if I do not cooperate,” Baertschiger said in a videotaped interview posted online.

He said he’s not budging.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey Taylor in San Francisco at jtaylor48@bloomberg.net;Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Anne Reifenberg, Reg Gale

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