Lawyers representing a group of agricultural, business, forest an transportation industry associations have filed a suit in Marion County Circuit Court naming Oregon Governor Kate Brown in her official capacity as Governor of Oregon. The suit alleges that her executive order requiring carbon reduction at state agencies, issued in March of this year is illegal and asking that much of it be declared unconstitutional.

The core of the executive order is found in Section 3A, which the plaintiffs are asking to be declared unconstitutional. It issues a directive to executive branch agencies that they "shall exercise any and all authority and discretion vested in them by law to help Oregon's achievement of the GHG emissions reduction goals." These goals are a reduction of "at least 45 percent below 1990 emissions levels by the year 2035 and at least 80 percent below 1990 emissions levels by the year 2050."

Specifically, the suit alleges that

"[T]he Governor issued Executive Order No. 20-04 [which] unilaterally set a minimum 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for the State of Oregon, and doubled the carbon intensity reduction standard previously established by the Legislative Assembly. EO 20-04 mandates that 16 separate state agencies and commissions, including the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission, adopt rules to achieve those standards. The Governor issued EO 20-04 after the Legislative Assembly, the department of state government charged with making laws, failed in successive legislative sessions to adopt nearly identical efforts to amend the existing statutory GHG goals and low carbon fuel standards found in ORS 468A.205 and ORS 468A.266."

The suit requests:

Plaintiffs are entitled to a judgment...declaring that:

(a) Sections 2, 3.A, and 4.C of EO 20-04 are unconstitutional because they violate Article III, Section 1, of the Oregon Constitution and/or exceed the scope of authority delegated to the executive branch under Article V of the Oregon Constitution.

(b) Section 4.A of EO 20-04 is unconstitutional because it violates Article III, Section 1, of the Oregon Constitution and/or exceeds the scope of authority delegated to the executive branch under Article V of the Oregon Constitution.

Rachel Dawson, a Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute suggests that progress is being made, if emissions are considered on a per-capita basis.


She notes that “When measured on a per capita basis, Oregon GHG emissions in 2017 were actually 21% lower than 1990 levels. We have more than doubled the 10% emissions reduction goal and done so—three years ahead of the deadline.”

The 2019 session was marked by a Republican Senate walkout to deny a quorum over HB 2020, which had passed the House. This bill would have set carbon goals for the entire state, not just state agencies, as the executive order does. Governor Brow's executive order was seen as a way for her to have something to give to her left-leaning environmental lobby in the absence of a bill, which many observers say was not a sure bet to pass the Senate.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-01 22:04:20

Last Update: 2020-08-03 12:00:59