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Governor names members of climate change panel

Conservation - Ted Kulongoski wants the advisers to focus on aggressive measures

Friday, January 25, 2008
The Oregonian

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Thursday he wants a new state climate change commission to focus on aggressive conservation measures, green building, a carbon "cap-and-trade" system and looming water shortages.

The governor also announced his appointments to the advisory group, which the Legislature authorized last year. The Oregon Global Warming Commission includes utility leaders, environmentalists, a forest land owner and an executive with R.B. Pamplin, the owner of Ross Island.

Kulongoski said he wants the group to help develop his agenda for the 2009 legislative session. Last year, the Legislature agreed to a goal of reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Commission members can make that more than just "an aspirational goal" if "we do our work well and diligently," said Chairman Angus Duncan, president of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

The commission also will help the state prepare for the potential effects of global warming, Kulongoski said, including the possibility of reduced snowpack and insect infestations in forests.

A cap-and-trade system would cap allowable emissions by power plants and other greenhouse gas emitters. Polluters above their caps could either reduce their emissions, buy credits from a polluter below the cap or buy credits from a third party that would use the money to pay for greenhouse gas reduction elsewhere.

Many economists favor a tax on greenhouse gas emissions over a cap-and-trade system, saying a tax is a more efficient way to combat global warming. Kulongoski said he hasn't ruled out a carbon tax: "Everything's on the table."

The commission's voting vice chairman is Jim Rue, a Pamplin executive who owns a family farm in Silverton and served for eight years on the state's Board of Agriculture.

The other nine voting members are David Brauer-Rieke, bishop of the Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; Matt Donegan, co-founder of Forest Capital Partners, a private forest owner; Andrea Durbin, executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council; Jill Eiland, Intel's corporate affairs manager; Peggy Fowler, CEO of Portland General Electric; Russ Hoeflich, The Nature Conservancy's Oregon director; Gregg Kantor, president of Northwest Natural Gas; Eric Lemelson, a vineyard owner; and Bill Wyatt, Port of Portland executive director.

Scott Learn: 503-294-7657

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