Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday,
February 4th, 2017
CONTACT:
Shelia Megson
Chief of Staff
503-986-1401
Shelia.Megson@oregonlegislature.gov
Click Here for the Bill
Representative David Brock Smith introduces
Healthy Forests & Rural Job Innovation through Carbon Sequestration
Legislation
SALEM – Representative David
Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) has long been an advocate for rural Oregon
communities and their residents. As a former School Board Member for the Port Orford-Langlois
School District; which is the 8th most impoverished School District
in the Nation, Curry County Commissioner, Association of Oregon Counties and
Association of O&C Counties Board Member, he has worked on natural resource
and economic development issues that impact rural Oregon for well over a
decade. As southwest Oregon still struggles to recover from the recession; with
unemployment around 6% below mean 0 pre-recession, in the wake of the Chetco
Bar Fire and in the face of a California modeled carbon tax that would
economically hurt rural Oregonians the hardest, Rep. Brock Smith has introduced
a bipartisan bicameral bill that will protect the health of our most
vulnerable, grow family wage jobs in our rural Oregon communities, build
healthier forests and sequester carbon emissions for generations.
Unlike the proposed carbon
tax; modeled after California’s extremely expensive and punitive program, Rep.
Brock Smith’s HB 4109 is a bicameral and bipartisan piece of legislation that looks
to our amazing, renewable forests. “As a member of the Global Warming
Commission; appointed by the Speaker, we know that Oregon produces less than
.14 % of the global greenhouse emissions. Our abundant forests sequester over
60% of the greenhouse emissions produced in our State. Yet over 30% of these
sequestered diesel, gas and other emissions are released back into the
atmosphere in catastrophic fires, such as the Chetco Bar, releasing with them
toxic emissions that impact the health, safety and lives of our residents,”
said Rep. Brock Smith. These greenhouse gas emissions are also released through
disease, decay and the lack of salvage on burned forestlands.
“The proposed $1.4 Billion
dollar Carbon Tax does little to address these critical issues. It is punitive,
will increase utility costs, fuel costs, and greatly impact rural Oregonians
the hardest,” said Rep. Brock Smith. “It will also have little to no impact on
reducing emissions, as industries will pass on the costs to consumers.”
The proposed Carbon Tax could
also allow California Industries the ability to drive up the costs of the
program here in Oregon, protecting their own markets in California and their
families and residents. “This is shortsighted and a $1.4 Billion dollar policy
has no place in a 35 day Legislative Short Session,” said Rep. Brock Smith.
“Data supports that our public
forests are overgrown and unhealthy. Regardless of what side of the climate
argument you are on, the landscape is changing and we must adapt the forest
management practices to address the changing conditions,” said Rep. Brock
Smith.
“We our blessed to grow the
best solar powered carbon capture and sequestration engines in the world. Using
sunlight to scrub greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere to produce oxygen,
with a byproduct that is the most resilient building material in the world,
wood. My bipartisan legislation looks to manage our resources, promoting forest
health and habitat, while mitigating wildfire, creating jobs and sequestering
carbon for generations. It will help provide the needed supply for our wood
product industries; such as CLT and Mass Timber in combination with our
aggregate and steel industries, to grow and support their rural Oregon
residents and their communities. All while growing more carbon sequestration
engines that use less water and sequester carbon at a greater rate,” said Rep.
Brock Smith.
“It is past time to promote
the carbon sequestration championed through our wood product industries,” said
Rep. Brock Smith. “With our advances in CLT, Mass Timber, aggregate and steel,
we can sequester carbon for generations while building the true bridge between
the rural-urban divide, protecting the health, life and economies of our
residents and their communities.”
Rep. Brock Smith’s Healthy
Forests & Rural Job Innovation through Carbon Sequestration Bill is
scheduled for a public hearing in the House Agriculture & Natural Resources
Committee on Thursday, February 8th.
Rep. David Brock Smith represents House District 1,
which includes Curry, Coos, Douglas and Josephine counties. This press release
and an archive of previous press releases issued by Rep. David Brock Smith’s
office are available on the web at: www.oregonlegislature.gov/smithd.
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 House District 1
Curry, Coos, Douglas and Josephine Counties
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1401
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-379, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.DavidBrockSmith@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/smithd
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