With just five weeks remaining in the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers have yet to unveil the details of a transportation funding package.
This delay was brought into even sharper focus when the two co-chairs of the committee the bill is being crafted in released a memo Thursday with an update on their progress. Among the list of items leaders of the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment (TRIP) updated their colleagues on was a major new policy: The bill will include a new spin on “cap and trade” that would dedicate emission credits to highway projects.
Yes, you read that right. A legislature with a Democrat super-majority (albeit very slim) is crafting a transportation bill that could include a major new source of revenue that expands driving capacity.
The move is likely part of TRIP Committee co-chairs Senator Chris Gorsek and Representative Susan McLain’s (both Democrats) attempt to appease Republicans (and perhaps even some Democrats who love freeway megaprojects) whose votes they want to help pass the bill.
Environmental and transportation advocates immediately pounced on the move.
“It’s like Christmas in May for polluters,” said Lindsey Scholten, executive director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, in a statement published by Move Oregon Forward. “Unfortunately, Democrats in charge are clearly letting Republicans take them for a ride and offering polluters their wish list at the expense of Oregonians.”
The Gorsek and McLain would replace Oregon’s current Climate Protection Program with a “market-based emissions reduction program” and link it to other West Coast markets. In their memo yesterday, the lawmakers made it clear that credits generated from gas and diesel emissions would be dedicated to the state highway fund for “core operations and major projects.” While no numbers were shared, the memo also said “a portion of remaining credits” would be dedicated to a list of other things like: wildfire prevention efforts, local nonprofits working on climate impact programs — and if there’s anything left over — pedestrian safety, transit, and rail projects.
The “cap and pave” program is likely the work of Senator Bruce Starr, who’s one of just a few Republicans working with Democrats to craft the package. Starr is a dedicated advocate for car users and has spent years in the legislature pushing for higher speed limits and more freeway spending. In 2008 Starr opposed a $30 million investment in bike and pedestrian facilities as part of a $1.2 billion expansion of I-5, saying he’d rather spend the money on, “a new interchange in Washington County that allows me to move people safely.”
Democrats released their framework for the $1.9 billion Transportation Reinvestment Package (TRIP) back in April. That framework includes a host of fee and tax increases that would help the Oregon Department of Transportation shore up its budget, pay for freeway megaprojects with massive cost overruns, and invest a relatively paltry sum in programs that fund bicycling, walking, and transit needs statewide.
Advocacy groups are pushing the Democrats to balance the package with much higher investments in transit, rail and projects that improve road safety.
While House and Senate leaders work behind closed doors and have floated a major new policy initiative just weeks prior to the end of the session, their memo promises an actual bill will be “forthcoming,” and that, “A fully transparent and public process will help evaluate and refine the proposals.”
In the meantime, I’ll continue to refresh the House Bill 2025 page on the Oregon Legislative Information System website.
Thanks for reading.
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Yet in 2003-05, Oregon had Amtrak service to Astoria and the Amtrak train from Seattle to Portland to Boise and Denver stopped in 1997.
I remember taking the Amtrak Pioneer. There were 3 trains that together left Chicago for Denver, then broke up into 3 western routes, the California Zephyr (which is still operating), the Pioneer which headed north, and the Desert Wind which headed from Salt Lake City to LA. The northern route passed through Cheyenne Wyoming to Salt Lake City, Boise, Pendleton, the Dalles (on the south side of the Columbia River), Portland, and eventually Seattle. Both the Pioneer and Desert Wind got cut in 1997.
Back in the 1980s there was also the Willamette Valley train to Eugene, now part of the Cascades service, but with extra stops in Milwaukie and Woodburn.
You are right to be skeptical about the folks involved in this negotiation, and to be concerned about the lack of detail in the proposal (though it is unclear whether the intention here is to ram through last-minute changes in the current session or simply to begin a new conversation while legislators are together).
With those (massive) caveats aside, I do think it is possible that an eventual move to a unified three-state cap-and-trade system could be net positive. The system would be much more robust than the flimsy administrative rule imposed by the governor. It could also create stronger political constituencies by funding things that are popular. Yes it would be better to tax transportation carbon to fund transit, but what is being proposed here is not that different from raising the gas tax (only the money from gas and diesel goes to the highway fund). Taxes are never popular, but the gas tax is probably the closest thing we will ever have to a popular tax. Dedicated funding for wildfire mitigation is also sorely needed (and popular in rural districts).
At the risk of delusional optimism, I am holding a tiny candle of hope here for an eventual proposal that results in major emissions reductions relative to projections under the current administrative approach (CPP and Clean Fuels Program). If (big if) we end up with a bipartisan proposal that can get us there by allocating dedicated funding to things that are popular outside Portland, I think it’s worth our consideration.
Thanks William. Definitely worth our consideration and yes, I agree (and have heard from sources close to it) that cap and trade could have some good revenue for stuff we like. There’s just so many reasons to not trust the lawmakers to do it right — and then to trust ODOT to be in charge of the funding is an entirely other concern. But yes, I believe we have to keep an open mind for sure.
Maybe a different way to put it is to try to think about the cap separately from what it funds. Yes funding highways usually leads to more driving and thus more emissions, though OTOH taxing gas/diesel does the opposite.
More importantly, the whole point of the cap is to drive emissions down. This is appealing exactly because I don’t trust state agencies (ODOT, but also DEQ, ODOE, etc). In the current CPP system, we are relying on those agencies to do what they promise. In a cap-based system, we are relying on an independent, market-based mechanism. There is still plenty that can go wrong, but I am more hopeful about a new approach than one that relies on empty promises from the same old broken bureaucracy.
I think it’s waaay too premature to discuss this since we haven’t even seen the bill language yet. Also, I have a feeling this is just political games from Rs to tank the bill and get Dems to “vote against their own idea”. Let’s wait and see.
I hear you, but I don’t think it’s too early to call your rep and ask for a bill that delivers a reduction in emissions. Certainly other advocates are weighing in…
“More importantly, the whole point of the cap is to drive emissions down. “
Except the way it just suddenly popped up suggests that the whole point is to charge fees. Seems like it’s yet another money grab and therefore won’t be thought through to actually reduce emissions.
Despite yet another climate arsonist betrayal, the democratic party of oregon once again thanks urbanists, liberals, and progressives for their future enthusiastic electoral support.
Dem leaders are Lucy holding the football.
Dem voters are Charlie Brown, thinking he’ll *finally* get to kick that football.
I have never trusted Gorsek so let’s see if he lets us down this time.
This is a reminder to the biking/walking Illuminati, they need to up their donations to their favorite politicians.
Having a supermajority in Salem (or anywhere for that matter) promotes secrecy and backdoor deals….never a need for public input or compromise. In Oregon, we get what Portland voters support.