SALEM, Ore. —
With Oregon facing major crises around homelessness and housing, drug overdoses and addiction, Governor Tina Kotek's first year and three months in office hasn't included much room for another big priority: climate change. This week, KGW environmental reporter Kale Williams had a chance to sit down with the governor and ask her about what she still hopes to accomplish on that front.
During the discussion, held in the State Library in Salem, Kotek talked about her vision for an upcoming transportation package, the need for more electric vehicles and how to tackle the housing crisis in Oregon in a climate-friendly way.
But she started the interview by laying out her top environmental priority.
“The top issue for me is making sure we can meet our climate reduction goals,” Kotek said.
That got a little harder recently after the state’s primary tool for reducing greenhouse gases was invalidated by an appeals court.
The program, put in place by former Gov. Kate Brown, put a cap on emissions from the state’s largest polluters, which gradually lowered over time. The end goal was a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
But several of the state’s largest natural gas utilities sued over the program, and in late 2023, the court found that the Department of Environmental Quality had made errors during the rulemaking process while the program was being crafted.
That means the state will have to redo that whole process, a significant setback to a program intended to solve a problem that worsens by the day. A new rulemaking committee met earlier this week with the hopes of reimplementing the program by next year.
“It's certainly not ideal when there's been a lot of work to put in to develop those rules for the Climate Protection Program that the court said, ‘Hey you didn't quite do it right,’” Kotek said. “So they're restarting, but the substance wasn't challenged in that court ruling. We want to make sure that everyone's at the table being transparent about the rulemaking but continuing to move forward because it is a key piece to make sure we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.”
The Climate Protection Program is just one of the ways Kotek is hoping to stem effects of climate change.
Buildings in Oregon are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, mostly from burning fossil fuels to heat them and run appliances. Early in her term, Kotek pledged to permit some 36,000 new units of housing every year, and the legislature passed a housing package in the last session that put roughly $375 million toward that goal.
So with all that potential housing in the pipeline, how does Kotek plan to make sure all that new construction is built with climate in mind?
Kotek pointed to incentive programs the state already has for electric appliances and increased efficiency in existing buildings. She said she pushed for similar programs for new construction to be included in the housing package.
“These are homes that are going to be there for many decades in the future, so can they also be responsive to our needs around climate? And I think we can do that,” she said, noting that funding for incentives in new construction didn’t make it into the final bill, but that she’d be pushing for it in the next session.
It’s not just about what’s in new homes, though, she said. It’s also about how and where they’re built.
“If you think about housing and having it available in a way that reduces transportation needs, that's a climate issue,” she said. “Making it easier for people to live closer to where they live and work and have their kids go to school is a climate issue.”
But what about the state’s top-emitting sector? That dubious distinction falls to transportation, and it's is likely to be the topic of robust debate in next year’s legislative session.
We asked Kotek how she’ll ensure that the transportation sector plays its role in meeting the state’s climate goals.
“It has to,” she said. “The Oregon Department of Transportation does have a climate action plan and we need to follow that as best we can. One of the good things that came out of the last transportation package were some really key investments. One was a statewide payroll tax that is now supporting transit across the state — not just in larger populated areas, but across the state.”
But beyond supporting public transit, Kotek said she’d like to see more incentives to get people into electric vehicles.
The state already has a rebate program for electric vehicles, but the program quickly ran out of money the first time it was offered. It just opened again, but is only available from April 3 to June 3, or until the money runs out again.
“I would like some consistency there,” Kotek said. “If you think that program is not available, you're going to make different choices. I would like to get to a point where we have consistency with that program. I've been frustrated that we've had this up and down, open and closed.”
The growing popularity of electric vehicles will have ripple effects. Road maintenance has traditionally been funded through a gas tax, but with fewer people buying gas, the state will need to find other sources of money.
“We want people in cleaner vehicles, but they still need roads, right?” she said. "The gas tax, at least in the near term, is still going to be a source of funding for operation and maintenance on our roads. But what is appropriate for folks who are driving electric vehicles? What should they be doing differently? We want to have that conversation potentially on road user fees to make sure that everyone is supporting the infrastructure we all need.”
While Kotek said she was proud of her environmental record, not everyone feels that way. Some environmental advocates who supported Kotek in the last election have expressed frustration at some of her moves.
Oregon has long had Urban Growth Boundaries, intended to prevent sprawl and protect natural environments. In the last housing package, restrictions on the boundaries were changed to allow some limited development outside of them — and that’s caused some to question her commitment to environmental protections, particularly when it comes to land use laws.
“I know there was some frustration there, but I also want to say thank you to the environmental communities who came together with us and said, ‘How do we do this as responsibly as possible?’” she said. “I believe we can build more housing but not destroy our land use system. And so what you saw in the bill that eventually passed was clear goals around affordability, clear goals when a community could use an expanded urban growth boundary tool, not every community is going to do it.”
She said she expects a lot of eyes on how housing production develops, especially from those who are skeptical of her approach.
“They're watching, I'm watching,” she said. “We want to do it right. Building more homes just willy-nilly is not the right way to do it. We're doing It responsibly and strategically.”
Part two of KGW's interview with Kotek, publishing Friday, covers some of the more controversial environmental issues facing the state, namely the push to develop floating offshore wind turbines on the south coast and changes to timber policies in western Oregon's state forests.