Oregon's efforts to regulate climate change hit a snag recently, prompting state environmental regulators to start over with a rulemaking process aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced they would need to fully redo the year-long legislative work that originally birthed the now-invalidated Climate Protection Program, as reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
This move comes after a legal blow from the state’s second highest court last month, which sided with natural gas utilities in their battle to squash the program. The Climate Protection Program, which had been painstakingly developed and passed in 2021, demanded fossil fuel firms cut their emissions by 50% by 2035 and 90% by 2050. At a minimum, 26% of these reductions were to be achieved specifically by natural gas utilities—a sector replete with methane, a particularly effective heat-trapper, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nevertheless, the court ruled the program to be invalid due to a failure to correctly follow certain disclosure requirements, as The Bend Bulletin reports.
Bottom line: the Climate Protection Program is now void and the DEQ is quickly acting to rectify the situation. "DEQ strongly disagrees with the court’s decision, but we accept it," DEQ director Leah Feldon stated, as obtained by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Feldon and her team chose not to appeal, which would've likely extended this saga well into 2025, but instead opted to retread the shorter path of simply redoing the rulemaking from scratch.
So, it's back to the drawing board. The DEQ is already piecing together a strategy to get the rules rewritten and passed, with the same DEQ staff expected to chip in. They are slated to do it all over again—hold public hearings, call for comments, and roll out proposals to the environmental commission before the final green light is given on the new rules. While similar, some aspects of the previous program may see shifts during this revival process, as communicated by Lauren Wirtis, a DEQ communications manager, in an email to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. “The rules could change during the rulemaking process. This includes having new elements or shifting timelines,” she said.
