Oregon Senate president says climate-change bill is dead; Republicans fled the state to block its passage

A small group of people demonstrated outside the Oregon Capitol

to support the walkout. (Photo by Mark Graves, The Oregonian)

"Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said Tuesday that the climate change bill that prompted Republicans’ walkout lacks the votes necessary to pass because not enough Democrats support it," The Oregonian reports. Courtney said a long list of other important bills with bipartisan support needed to be passed by the June 30 deadline for adjournment.

Senate Republicans fled the state last week to prevent a vote on a bill that would attack climate change with a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions. Without the Republicans, the Senate could not achieve a supermajority quorum and could not act. Republicans said it was the best way they could represent their conservative rural constituents. Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, ordered state police to round them up, but armed militias, who promised to protect the Republicans from capture, threatened the state Capitol and prompted a temporary shutdown.