Breaking: Oregon Apollo pulls the plug

This news just arrived from the Oregon Apollo campaign for renewable energy:

Given the ongoing court challenges to our ballot title and the requested review by the Supreme Court, it appears most unlikely that we will have sufficient time to gather the necessary signatures to place this measure before the voters in November.

For this reason, we believe that the best course of action is to transfer our time and energy from the 2006 initiative to a multi-year effort to solidify and align the various groups committed to advancing renewable energy development use here in Oregon and across the region.

Discuss.

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    Damn. Apollo is such great idea for progressives on so many levels (pro-environment, pro-economy, pro-health). It brings so many political battles onto our turf. That, and it's just the right thing to do. It's especially disappointing having seen how much support rallied to the Apollo banner at the Engage Oregon conference. People committed to thousands of gathered signatures and hundreds of volunteer hours.

    I don't mean to take anything away from the people who worked to get this measure on the ballot but ultimately came up short. By what few accounts I heard, it was an uphill battle, and I have nothing but respect for those who dedicated their time and energy to trying to make this work. I'm still really bummed though.

  • JEsse O (unverified)
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    Initiatives 101. File in time for the court challenges to work themselves out. They happen all the time, they take from 2 to 8 months. Nothing surprising about it.

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    This isn't that breaking. the problem is the concept of green energy and energy independance is easy to understand and polls well. The probelm is the actual law to foster those things was dense and confusing.

    I wouldn't rule this out and I also know that the Governor would like to move somehtign similar in the session.

    I know that the Apollo allanice and the Governor's office had some static over issues of control but I think both sides want Oregon to be a model fo what a State can be like. Hopefully we can create some bi-partsin support and move this through the legislative process in 2007.

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    Amen.

    Clean energy jobs are a way that we can be a real national leader. It's good High-Road Economy, bridge-building stuff.

    As a movement, we are too slow in putting together balot initiatives. Hopefully, we can get good energy stuff ready NOW for 2007 and beyond.

    It's an issue that people should run on in 2006 and beyond. There's a movement there...waiting to happen.

    Onward, JS

  • David (unverified)
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    Serious question, what is the Bus going to do with its endorsement of this measure now that its dead?

  • THartill (unverified)
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    So why not an "apollo mission" to gather enough sigs? 75,000 is a big number, but with gas prices hitting $3+ in the next 2 weeks, everyone will be talking about it. I could get 200 sigs in a few days for this, many more if there was actually some press about it. Which brings up another question, where is the press? I have not heard a word about it until today. We have 3 local energy groups that meet/do presentations every month and the rooms are always packed. Surely there is at least 100 more of these thoughout Oregon, there is 20,000 sigs right there.

    Certainly I thank the folks involved with this, but come on, what the hell is going on here?

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    If the Ballot title was "Save Money on Fuel" or something like that, you could get a couple of hundred standing at a gas station.....

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    Mr. Smith said it best, A national movement waiting to happen, and we can be the lead state.

    Sorensen was a true believer from the git go and Teddy K has gotten religion as well, so one hopes that this'll get the attention that it deserves.......

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    Brazil is currently around 85% enrgy independent around the ethanol production right now, and I can see where with off the shelf tech, you could easily put together a plug-in hybrid, that ran on ethanol. How cool would that be?

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    <h2>This really sucks ass. It's a little odd, too, given that for the first time, we're starting to see some real recognition of the problem posed by global warming. And yet perhaps that's the silver lining--the greater awareness may make legislation or subsequent ballot measures more likely to resonate with people.</h2>
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