Wildfires and the multibillion-dollar toll they’ve taken on Oregon are at the center of state Democrats’ renewed efforts to pass a climate superfund bill.
It’s the second year that Oregon lawmakers have considered legislation to make fossil fuel companies pay for the costs of climate change. And it probably won’t be the last, as the bill is unlikely to advance through the entire legislative process before lawmakers adjourn in early March.
But supporters nevertheless see it as an increasingly critical policy for the state’s economic future, and they intend to continue building pressure for it.
Sen. Jeff Golden, a Democrat from wildfire-prone southern Oregon and one of the bill’s sponsors, pointed to the 2020 Labor Day fires and their aftermath to argue “Oregon is on a path to complete disaster … if something doesn’t change.”
