Climate Protection Program - DEQ Climate Rulemaking Advocacy

Climate Protection Program
DEQ 2023 Climate Rulemaking Advocacy*

Talking Points and Sample Testimony

WHY WE'RE INVOLVED

Beyond Toxics fought hard in the legislature to advance a climate protection program that holds climate polluters accountable for their GHG emissions that are leading to hotter and unpredictable climate and weather patterns. We need all voices to be heard by our state decision makers to make clear that Oregon must move forward on reducing climate-warming pollution and not allow fossil fuel industries to force us to slide backwards.

BACKGROUND

Oregon’s Climate Protection Program (CPP) is one of our strongest climate policies – it requires big polluters to drastically cut their emissions over time. Unfortunately, the cornerstone CPP is currently under attack, threatened by attempted rollbacks by regulated industries.

The Environmental Quality Commission adopted the CPP after a robust year-and-a-half long rulemaking process and extensive public input, including more than 7,600 public comments. By reducing climate and air pollution from buildings, transportation systems, and industries, the CPP will provide immediate public health benefits and cost-saving for communities historically impacted by environmental injustice. These emissions reductions can provide significant economic benefits, by encouraging technological innovation and investments in clean energy.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) 2023 Climate Rulemaking will have far-reaching consequences for the climate and communities in Oregon. If done well, this rulemaking will help ensure Oregon’s cornerstone CPP stays on track to deliver its stated climate goals and public health, economic, and employment benefits for environmental justice communities in Oregon. However, given the broad scope of issues and laws touched by this proceeding, there could be very serious unintended consequences if impacts to communities and the climate are not sufficiently considered.

Without strong engagement from public interest advocates, the oil and gas industry could succeed in securing final rules that limit benefits for climate and communities in Oregon. Urgent advocacy is needed to make sure that doesn’t happen. For more information, please see these presentation slides and group comments. For more, review DEQ’s current proposed rules.

HOW TO ENGAGE

Testify at the DEQ public hearing on the rules
Sept. 18, 2023, 4:00 p.m.

Submit written public comments to DEQ
DEADLINE: October 13, 2023, 4:00 pm
Email comments to: Climate.2023@deq.oregon.gov with “2023 Climate Rulemaking” in the subject line

WHAT WE'RE ASKING FOR

DEQ must ensure the Climate Protection Program stays on track to achieve its climate goals and deliver public health, economic, and job benefits for Oregon communities. Specifically, it is vital that DEQ strengthen its current proposed rules by:

Restricting biomethane (aka renewable natural gas (RNG) and hydrogen used for CPP compliance to that which produces direct benefits for Oregonians.

Strengthening emissions reduction requirements for new or expanded large industrial facilities in Oregon under the CPP’s Best Available Emissions Reduction (BAER) program.

SAMPLE TESTIMONY

Remember personalized testimony is most effective! See below for additional talking points to consider mixing and matching. Short and sweet is great – don’t worry about covering all points.

--Remember to keep verbal testimony to 3 minutes or less (2 minutes is ideal!)--

Good afternoon [EQC: Chair George, Vice Chair Baraso, members of the Commission]. [Share name/affiliation and any relevant personal/professional information about your interest in this issue].

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment today on DEQ’s 2023 climate rulemaking.

As DEQ knows well, this rulemaking will have far-reaching consequences for the climate and communities in Oregon.

By designing guardrails and pathways for regulated entities to comply with Oregon’s cornerstone Climate Protection Program (CPP), this rulemaking – if done well – will be vital to ensuring our state stays on track to achieve our climate goals, and to deliver public health, economic, and employment benefits for environmental justice communities in Oregon.

However, given the broad scope of issues and laws touched by this proceeding, there could be very serious unintended consequences if impacts to communities and the climate are not sufficiently considered.

I am concerned that DEQ’s current proposed rules would effectively undermine the CPP– a program that is absolutely essential to achieving our state’s climate pollution reduction goals, and which was adopted with overwhelming public support following an extensive 18 month rulemaking and stakeholder engagement process.

Specifically, I am concerned that DEQ’s current proposed rules would allow regulated gas utilities to rely on out-of-state biomethane investments, and would enable the expansion of new large industrial emitters with the potential to emit unfettered climate pollution in Oregon.

By undermining the integrity of the CPP, the current proposed rule amendments will severely compromise the program’s intended public health, economic, and employment goals, and thereby hinder benefits for Oregon consumers, workers, local economies, and environmental justice communities across the state.

I therefore strongly urge DEQ to amend the proposed rules by:

1) Restricting biomethane and hydrogen used for CPP compliance to that which produces direct benefits for Oregonians, by limiting the eligible use of “book and claim” accounting to only biomethane or hydrogen that is injected into a pipeline within Oregon; and

2) Strengthening emissions reduction requirements for new or expanded large stationary source facilities in Oregon under the CPP’s Best Available Emissions Reduction program.

I also strongly support maintaining protective restrictions on biomethane accounting in the current rules where they exist, including notably, that synthetic methane derived from anthropogenic carbon sources does not comply with the CPP.

Doing so will not only help ensure that Oregon stays on track to achieve our climate goals, but will also maximize the associated job creation, cost saving, public health, and economic development benefits– ensuring that they benefit Oregon communities, and are not exported out of state.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS

Gas utility regulation/biomethane

The stated goals of the CPP are to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other air pollutants, maximize public health benefits, and minimize costs for consumers in environmental justice and other communities in Oregon.

The CPP already provides significant flexibility/cost constraints for gas utilities to comply.
Allowing further flexibility–e.g. use of RTCs–will hinder the transition to non-emitting alternatives and fail to reduce climate/air pollution or deliver health/consumer benefits for environmental justice communities in Oregon.

These projects deliver no direct benefits to Oregonians, while CCIs will provide economic, health and comfort benefits to the communities most in need as well as significant emissions reductions.

Further, allowing covered fuel suppliers to rely on out-of-state biomethane presents the alarming likelihood that investments will be diverted from the Community Climate Investment (CCI) program.

The CCI program was developed and informed by many months of engagement with environmental justice communities in Oregon, with the goal of supporting investments that maximize public health, jobs, and cost-saving benefits for these and other communities historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by economic disinvestment, health challenges, and environmental harms.

Industrial polluters / Best Available Emissions Reduction (BAER)

Large industrial emitters must be held accountable for their significant climate pollution.

As the only existing state regulation on major industrial emitters, it is vital that the CPP works to ensure science-based emissions reductions from existing stationary sources and deter development of new stationary sources in Oregon.

Continuing to enable the development of new sources or expansion of existing sources flies in the face of the CPP’s stated equity and climate goals.

Any new stationary source or any proposed modification that has the potential to emit GHGs in any quantity should complete a BAER assessment prior to construction.

As-is, the BAER approach for regulating large stationary sources will not effectively reduce sector-wide emissions.

Unfortunately, since the adoption of the final CPP rules in 2021, increasing emissions from Oregon’s industrial sector has become a reality.

As one example, Amazon is seeking multiple permits to build or expand operations at several energy-intensive, fossil gas-powered data centers in Eastern Oregon; these data centers alone will result in an enormous increase in gas use and GHG emissions.

Further, in the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers adopted the “Oregon CHIPS Act,” which provides $210 million in funding and creates land use exemptions to accelerate the development of semiconductor plants or other advanced manufacturing facilities.

Given the increasing inevitability of a growing industrial sector, it is especially critical that DEQ use this rulemaking to strengthen the integrity of the BAER program.

SAMPLE WRITTEN TESTIMONY

ADDRESS: climate.2023@deq.oregon.gov
SUBJECT: Please strengthen proposed 2023 climate rules

COPY:

Department of Environmental Quality,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on DEQ’s 2023 climate rulemaking. As DEQ knows well, this rulemaking will have far-reaching consequences for the climate and communities in Oregon.

By designing guardrails and pathways for regulated entities to comply with Oregon’s cornerstone Climate Protection Program (CPP), this rulemaking – if done well – will be vital to ensuring our state stays on track to achieve our climate goals, and to deliver public health, economic, and employment benefits for environmental justice communities in Oregon. However, given the broad scope of issues and laws touched by this proceeding, there could be very serious unintended consequences if impacts to communities and the climate are not sufficiently considered.

I am concerned that DEQ’s current proposed rules would effectively undermine the CPP– a program that is absolutely essential to achieving our state’s climate pollution reduction goals, and which was adopted with overwhelming public support following an extensive 18 month rulemaking and stakeholder engagement process. Specifically, I am concerned that DEQ’s current proposed rules would allow regulated gas utilities to rely on out-of-state biomethane investments, and would enable the expansion of new large industrial emitters with the potential to emit unfettered climate and air pollution in Oregon.

By undermining the integrity of the CPP, the current proposed rule amendments will severely compromise the program’s intended public health, economic, and employment goals, and thereby hinder benefits for Oregon consumers, workers, local economies, and environmental justice communities across the state. I therefore strongly urge DEQ to amend the proposed rules by:

1) Restricting biomethane or hydrogen used for CPP compliance to that which produces direct benefits for Oregonians, by limiting the eligible use of “book and claim” accounting to only biomethane or hydrogen that is injected into a pipeline within Oregon; and

2) Strengthening emissions reduction requirements for new or expanded large stationary source facilities in Oregon under the CPP’s Best Available Emissions Reduction program.

* Special thanks to the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) for compiling this information!