Cap and trade takes significant step toward reality

Oregon’s carbon cap and trade proposal passed out of its legislative committee on a party-line vote Friday, setting it up as the next landmark piece of legislation to pass in the 2019 session.

It’s now one step closer to the desk of Gov. Kate Brown, who this week signed the Student Success Act into law. If cap and trade were to pass as well, it would give her two landmark wins within months of her re-election.

The bill now goes to the Ways and Means Committee, where it can continue to be tweaked, though the committee will look at the financial aspects of the bill, not the policy.

House Bill 2020 would set a 52 million metric ton cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Companies that produce at least 25,000 metric tons of emissions per year would have to pay for every ton they emit by buying allowances through an auction. The proceeds from those sales would go to a highway projects, climate mitigation projects, rural and minority communities, and other programs.

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