Oregon’s Democratic Senate president appointed a climate change denier, Sen. Alan Olsen (R-Canby), to the Oregon Global Warming Commission last week.
The commission was formed a decade ago to advise the Legislature on ways to coordinate state and local efforts to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Olsen is known among climate policy advocates and, according to Willamette Week, his colleagues, as a committed climate change denier.
He has received $20,750 in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies and $26,800 from utility companies since he first ran for public office in 2010.
He has also received substantial donations from the forestry and forest products sector, which could come into play as the commission finalizes its report on forest carbon accounting.
The office of Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) did not immediately respond to inquiries about his decision to place a climate change denier on a commission charged with making recommendations based in science.
Olsen joins Sen. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland), filling the dual senate appointments to the commission. Olsen and Dembrow also head the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, which saw the death of several carbon pricing bills this past session.
The senators and their counterparts from the Oregon House of Representatives are among the 14 non-voting members of the commission.
“Most members are most active at and during the meetings,” said commission chair Angus Duncan, “and I expect Sen. Olsen will add a new and interesting note to some of those conversations.”
Duncan said he hopes to discover that Olsen is not actually a climate denier.
“An interesting question is whether Sen. Olsen will, as I expect he probably will, be vocal when we’re considering our biennial report to the Legislature,” he said. “If there are concerns he has and ways the voting majority thinks those can be accommodated, then we will certainly make an effort to do so.”
Republican Party Communications Director Jonathan Lockwood was quick to tweet on Aug. 22 when Courtney’s appointment was announced that Olsen will bring “balance, sensibility” to the commission.
“I’m looking forward to bringing my voice to the table so we can have balanced dialogue about our state’s climate policies,” Olsen said in a statement about his appointment to the commission.
“I would regard a balanced commission as one that said we ought to be out of coal plants and internal combustion engines in cars tomorrow – that would be an appropriately balanced position,” said Duncan. “We are not there.”
Of the 11 voting-member slots on the commission, which are all gubernatorial appointments, only six are expected to remain filled – just enough to constitute a quorum.
“I am very uncomfortable recruiting new people for a commission if the commission is not having any impact, and I’ll tell them that,” said Duncan. “I think we punch above our weight, but we are still a commission with an extremely important set of responsibilities, but no budget, no statutory authority, and part-time staff.”
Duncan said he’s been trying to make the case with the governor’s office for several years now that the state needs to get more serious about either its climate agenda or supporting the Oregon Global Warming Commission.
“I’m hoping the governor is planning to do that this year,” Duncan said.
The remaining voting members of the commission are Duncan (president and CEO of Bonneville Environmental Foundation), Andrea Durbin (executive director at Oregon Environmental Council), Catherine Mater, (Mater Engineering, servicing the forest products industry), Eric Lemelson (owner of Lemelson Vineyards), Jim Piro (CEO of Portland General Electric, retiring and likely stepping down from the commission at the end of the year) and Alan Zelenka (Eugene City Councilor and energy consultant at Kennedy/Jenks Consultants).