Republican lawmakers at the Oregon State Senate fled the state on Thursday to avoid being forced to vote on a climate bill that the Oregon House passed earlier this week in one of the strictest U.S. emission-capping efforts to tackle climate change. On Monday, the Oregon House voted in favor of passing the so-called cap-and-trade bill, under which emission-intensive industries—including transportation, utilities, and manufacturing—would have caps on their greenhouse gas emissions and the major polluters would have to buy credits for every ton of their own greenhouse gas emissions. Oregon will be looking to lower its emissions to 80 percent below the 1990 level by 2050. After clearing the Oregon House, the bill is now one vote away from becoming law. But this vote is in the Oregon Senate, where Republican Senators threatened walkouts to prevent the vote from taking place. Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, issued a […]