Anti-coal ballot initiative makes sense for Oregon (OPINION)

Oregonian (editorial):

From an economic perspective, coal is almost universally bad for Oregon's economy. Over the past several years the cost of coal power has increased substantially, while the cost of wind and solar power have dropped significantly. Today we send hundreds of millions of dollars a year out of state to pay for coal when we could be spending that money in-state on clean renewable energy sources. Since the first wind farm was built in the state, nearly $10 billion has been invested here on wind, solar and other renewable sources. This represents thousands of jobs in both urban and rural parts of the state, and there's a lot more opportunity.

In addition, coal power is one of our state's biggest contributors to climate change, and climate change is bad for many Oregon businesses across a wide spectrum of the economy. For many farmers, climate change represents a clear and present danger: specialty crops from wine grapes to hazelnuts generally grow well only in a narrow climate band. As that band changes, farmers' crops are threatened. My family owns vineyards in Yamhill County, and we harvested our grapes a full month early each of the past two years.

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