Republican state senators in Oregon skip town to stop a climate change vote; governor orders police to return them - Entrepreneur Generations

Republican state senators fled Oregon on Thursday to prevent the Democratic supermajority from passing a climate change bill they said hurt their rural constituents.

The move was "last-ditch political arithmetic: no senators, no votes. Without their 11 GOP colleagues, Senate Democrats can’t achieve a quorum, and their legislative agenda grinds to a halt. So the Republicans fled. They left the state, reportedly bolting over the Idaho line," Reis Thebault reports for The Washington Post. "Oregon Republicans said a boycott was the only way they could advocate for the people that voted them into office. They spoke of a deepening divide between the state’s ultraliberal urban enclaves and its sprawling rural counties with proud libertarian streaks."

It's the second time this session Republicans have walked out to prevent a vote, but Dems were able to bring them back with promises of compromise the first time. This time, Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, told state troopers to track down and bring back errant lawmakers, Thebault reports. Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican, told the superintendent of the state police: "Send bachelors and come heavily armed . . . I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple."

The bill they opposed aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. Businesses that produce carbon would have to buy pollution credits, and the state would gradually decrease the number of available credits. But Senate Republicans say the bill will have a "disproportionate and detrimental effect" on rural areas, since they believe the industry will probably pass the extra costs onto consumers, which would increase the price of fuel and put an undue burden on industries like trucking and logging, Thebault reports.

The Republican senators still have not returned. State Democrats are vowing to fine each one $500 a day, Dirk VanderHart reports for Oregon Public Radio.

from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2N4EvQq Republican state senators in Oregon skip town to stop a climate change vote; governor orders police to return them - Entrepreneur Generations

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