ClimateIntel.com

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has released draft air quality regulations that would require all industrial facilities permitted under federal or state air quality programs to monitor their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions beginning in 2009. The regulations, which are expected to impact more than 700 industrial sources ranging from coffee roasters to coal-fired power plants, are designed to create accurate GHG emissions data in anticipation of reductions that Oregon committed to as part of the Western Climate Initiative.

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Guest article by Nicole Wobus, Summit Blue.

Oregon is one of seventeen states with greenhouse gas emissions targets. Late last month, Governor Ted Kulongoski moved the state’s climate change agenda forward when he appointed members to the Oregon Global Warming Commission, a 25-person policy advisory group. The Commission, established through the state’s climate change bill, HB 3543, is tasked with recommending a package of policy initiatives for the Governor to introduce during the 2009 legislative session. It will build on findings and recommendations put forth by Oregon’s Climate Change Integration Group. That group’s upcoming final report will highlight steps the state is taking to adapt to a changing climate and will recommend further actions.

The Governor intends to make growth in the state’s “green economy” a centerpiece in the policy package. In comments to the Commission on January 24 the Governor stated, “[d]ealing with global warming is not just a moral imperative, it’s an economic imperative” that will create a “business climate ideal for investment in renewable and clean energy technologies.”

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