In announcing his 2009 legislative agenda, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski said his state would take even bolder steps in fighting climate change and leading the nation on a path towards cleaner, more efficient energy use.
The Governor unveiled his climate change agenda for 2009, which centers around four key areas: Greenhouse Gas Reductions; Energy Conservation and Efficiency; Renewable Energy; and Sustainable Transportation. Each area contains concepts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourages alternative power and vehicle use, drives innovative energy technology development, provides energy efficiency information to consumers and protects low income energy users.
"We have made great progress in the fight against climate change over the last five years, but that was just the beginning," Governor Kulongoski said. "This next session we must be bolder, more strategic and even more visionary if we want to reach our greenhouse reduction goals and truly pull ahead of the pack, leading our country and the globe on green living and green working."
The major elements of the Governor’s climate change agenda include developing net-zero energy use building codes, expanding the Business Energy Tax Credit to new more efficient vehicles, development of energy performance certificates for homebuyers and a regional cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We have reached another historic moment in our understanding of the environment–and the economy," the Governor said. "The unregulated and unmitigated emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is changing our climate, threatening our ecology, keeping us dependent on foreign sources of energy, and–if nothing is done–is a missed opportunity to reinvent our national and state economies."
A complete description of the Governor’s entire 2009 climate changes agenda is available online.
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