Politics
The Climate Gap Between Republican Voters and Republican Lawmakers
Lawmakers in Oregon walked out of the capitol rather than vote on carbon pricing, even though voters seem to support it.
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Oregon was set to adopt a market mechanism for pricing carbon-dioxide pollution, joining 11 other states that use cap-and-trade laws to combat climate change. Then last week a group of Republican lawmakers fled the state capitol, denying Democrats the quorum necessary to vote on the issue.
It was the second time in a year that Republicans left town rather than risk losing the battle over carbon pricing. “The vast majority of Oregonians I’ve heard from are saying the cap-and-trade measures will do more harm than good,” one state senator, Kim Thatcher, said in a statement.