After more than a week of avoiding the state Capitol in a successful effort to avoid a vote on a controversial climate change bill, Republican senators in Oregon are expected to return and vote on a slate of pending legislation.
Oregon Senate Republican leader Herman Baertschiger said Friday that all of the 11 senators would be returning after Democrats assured them that the cap-and-trade legislation would not come to a vote.
“It was a horrible bill,” Baertschiger said. “We had a bill that we just could not accept. We knew that it would devastate our communities.”
After the much-publicized walkout last week, Republican senators starved the legislature of the 20 members needed to reach quorum and vote on the bill, which would have required the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions below 45% of 1990 levels by 2035.
After the walkout Democratic Gov. Kate Brown told the police to bring back the missing politicians, creating controversy when right-wing militias said they would protect the lawmakers while they were in hiding.
