Deschutes Brewery announced Wednesday afternoon it had canceled its membership in a climate-related business group and pulled any support of Oregon’s controversial carbon-reduction proposal, House Bill 2020.

With the announcement, the Bend-based craft brewer joined several other local companies, including Dutch Bros. Coffee of Grants Pass, which left the business group over the past week and announced they were neutral on the cap-and-trade bill.

A message to our fans: pic.twitter.com/c08YNC5cU8 — Deschutes Brewery (@DeschutesBeer) June 26, 2019

“Deschutes Brewery loves our planet and will continue efforts to minimize our impact on the environment, and support federal legislation that contributes to sustainability,” the company announced via tweet. “We also believe the importance of local business.”

A company representative could not be reached for comment.

Deschutes Brewery was among nearly 100 businesses that Portland lumber company executive Andrew Miller had encouraged his employees and contractors to boycott because of their support of what he called a “flawed concept that allowed for a massive carbon credit scam.”

“How disingenuous of these large corporations and industries to sign on in support of billions in new carbon taxes knowing fully that they will get their carve-outs and everyday Oregonians will get whacked with the bill,” said Miller, CEO of Stimson Lumber.

His boycott was aimed at members of Oregon Business for Climate, which has been a key supporter of the proposed policy.

Nancy Hamilton, co-director of the climate group, said that her business members have been victims of a relentless misinformation campaign. She said that opposition groups have distributed inaccurate information to Oregonians, some whom have become very fearful about the bill’s potential effects on rural communities and industries.

“We had not anticipated such a vociferous, mean-spirited and un-Oregon-like campaign against hard-working businesses across the state,” Hamilton said.

Oregon Senate Republicans left the Capitol a week ago in protest over the massive bill and have yet to return, despite assurances by Senate President Peter Courtney that he lacks the needed Democratic votes to pass the bill. The Republicans didn’t show up for Thursday morning’s floor session, the seventh day they’ve missed work. Each Republican senator is being fined $500 for every day they miss.

Hundreds of truckers rolled into Salem on Thursday morning to protest the climate bill, sharing their concerns about how the legislation could hurt their livelihoods and encouraging Republican senators to continue their walkout.

Free donuts and bottled water were handed out by the Oregon Trucking Association, an opponent of a clean diesel bill awaiting a Senate vote. Log truck after log truck passed the state Capitol, where hundreds stood in the rain to protest the bill. They unleashed clouds of diesel soot while blasting airhorns so loud the honks could be heard on the floor of the state Senate and throughout Senate offices.

Jess Choat, 65, a log truck driver from Newport, said he took the day off work to protest the climate bill because he worried about the damage that an increase in fuel prices would cause the timber industry.

“I just don’t want Oregon to become like California. And that’s where we’re headed,” he said. “I don’t mind passing bills that help the environment, but we’re not getting a vote in this. That’s not how democracy works.”

A companion bill to the climate legislation would offer rebates of fuel price increases to agricultural and timber companies.

“I’m not saying that wouldn’t come through, but I’ve seen this before,” Choat said. “They promise you the moon and you don’t see nothing after they get it passed.”

NOTE: This story was updated at 1 p.m. June 27 to remove an inaccurate reference to Astoria brewery Fort George changing its stance on House Bill 2020. The company has been and remains neutral on the bill, according to company spokesman Brad Blaser. Fort George co-owner Jack Harris mistakenly claimed to be speaking for the company, when he was in fact expressing his personal views, when he wrote a letter and testified to the Legislature in support of the cap and trade proposal, Blaser said.