Alan Olsen
Olsen, R-Canby, is a state senator representing Senate District 20 in the Oregon Legislature.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, recently said in ameeting with reporters that the “new” cap-and-trade bill was too complicated for voters to understand, and therefore the people shouldn’t be allowed to decide this issue at the ballot. I can’t think of a more condescending argument to keep this destructive policy from voters.
Voters should remember this in November. It would also serve the Democrats well to remember who their boss is in this state – Oregonians. Only in politics can an employee (politician) get away with inferring their boss (Oregonians) are too inept to understand the difficulties of a job (bill) and not face termination. The truth isn’t that it’s too complicated for voters to understand. Voters have taken up many complicated issues over the last few decades. The truth is that the Democrats know cap and trade will fail at the ballot because voters absolutely can understand what the bill does to them – not for them.
When Senate Republicans refused to come to the Capitol in order to deny quorum less than eight months ago, we did so to try and get cap and trade before voters, fully aware the boycott would bring the issue to the forefront of our constituents’ – and registered Democrats’– attention. We wanted Oregonians to transparently know what their government is doing to them. Nothing remotely compares to how untenable this policy was then, and still is, for both rural Oregon and the metropolitan areas.
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It’s not about politics – it is about the real outcomes of this policy and what it means for every Oregonian, despite any rural or urban divide. The bill’s reduction goals are so far reaching and unattainable, we could ban every car and truck on the road right now and still not meet the goals for carbon reduction in the bill. The problems with cap and trade aren’t just limited to the Democrats’ hostility to giving voters a say at the ballot box or its economically devastating impact; section 34 of the bill they wrote keeps records from Oregonians and journalists. Voters will never know the extent of the corruption.
Oregonians should know the Democrats significantly exempted public records from disclosure in this proposed legislation. Records pertaining to the sale and speculation of auctioning allowances and credits for out-of-state special interests are exempt, among many other aspects of this bureaucratic state expansion. Oregonians should demand transparency.
Given that we had a governor resign over influence peddling accusations on environmental issues, or that we are coming off the recent corruption and fraud of the last special environmental project with the Business Energy Tax Credit program, or that our public records advocate recently resigned because of pressure from the governor’s office, the last thing this bill should do is exempt itself from public records disclosure.
A healthy representative democracy demands transparency in its public records and input from the public. Oregonians have a right to vote on cap and trade, a bill that fundamentally changes the economy of the state.
"Opinion" - Google News
February 02, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Opinion: Oregonians deserve to vote on cap-and-trade bill - oregonlive.com
"Opinion" - Google News
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