Cap and trade grows more complicated every Oregon legislative session as more exceptions are carved out. And the worst may be yet to come. If it passes, Oregon regulators would have two years to create complex rules for cap and trade. That’s a green new deal for lawyers and lobbyists hired to carve more holes in the tax for their clients and align new taxpayer-funded grant programs to their businesses. Previous Oregon Legislatures made similar energy policy with the Business Energy Tax Credit. Unfortunately, they didn’t fully understand the law’s consequences until developers gamed it, it ate a huge hole in the general fund, the Department of Energy was in tatters, and participants went to prison.

In 2017, Knute Buehler, the Republican candidate for governor, warned cap and trade would be a billion-dollar slush fund for politicians and their favored “green energy” special interests bigger than the Business Energy Tax Credit. Instead, Buehler supported a revenue-neutral carbon tax, returning taxpayers’ carbon fees to taxpayers on a per-capita basis. A net reward for Oregonians who do cut their emissions: a refund greater than the carbon tax they paid. That’s similar to British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax, which enjoys growing bipartisan popularity in its 12th year. Not only has it reduced global warming emissions, but eight other Canadian provinces have followed it.

Where are today’s smart Republican proposals? A walkout is not a policy proposal. We call on Oregon legislators to fashion carbon-reduction legislation acceptable across the aisle.

Tad Everhart, Portland