Session Watch: A Big Week For Green Bills
Work on the environment community’s agenda for the special session resumes Tuesday.
The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee becomes the unofficial epicenter in the afternoon when it takes up two of the most important green bills of the session.
Starting with….
The committee is done taking testimony on the bill, so it could possibly take a vote today. The bill bans the sale and manufacture of BPA lined containers that are designed for children less than three years old. It also bans selling food to small children that’s been stored in a BPA lined container.
SB 1059: Greenhouse Gas From Transportation
This is the first hearing on SB 1059, so expect testimony from both sides of the issue. A vote is not likely unless there’s already widespread support behind it. The bill tells Oregon’s largest metro areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It also provides help to design plans and implement them. Supporters say it will encourage more mass transit and less sprawl. Portland metro is exempt because similar legislation for the area was approved in a previous session. The bill applies to Salem-Keizer, Eugene-Springfield, Medford, Bend, and Corvallis.
The meetings for these two bills are scheduled for 1pm, Tuesday, in Hearing Room B. SB 1059 is also on the committee’s schedule for Thursday.
This bill goes back before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday. It bans single use plastic bags at grocery and retail stores. The Oregon League of Conservation Voters says we use 39 million plastic bags in the state every year, gulping up 150,000 barrels of oil.
In the plastic vs paper battle, if you consider the costs of producing and recycling the bags, there’s no clear winner. But plastic has a worse reputation for ending up as ugly litter along roads, streams, lakes, beaches and the ocean. The last two examples are why Oregon Surfrider is working so hard to pass SB 1009.
