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For those interested in following the money behind the demise of Oregon's cap and trade bill, my hunch is that it starts here, with this 3 week old FB group that organized yesterday's rally. The trail is not long, and it leads directly to Andrew Miller, the CEO of Stimson Lumber.
Here's a profile of Miller from 2012. According to that article, Miller had donated $2.2 million "in recent years" to conservative candidates and groups. By Oregon standards, that's a lot of money. wweek.com/portland/artic…
Miller's political contributions from the past three years in Oregon, via the Secretary of State's useful website. You'll note the most recent contribution was to Timber Unity on June 21. 
Here's a press release from his company from 2 days ago. It states that Timber Unity (the key organizer of yesterday's protest) was started by employees of Stimson Lumber. myemail.constantcontact.com/Stimson-Lumber…
I assume these employee/activists in Timber Unity do not include any of the 60 employees who the company just laid off from their mill in Forest Grove. But perhaps I'm wrong about that. wweek.com/news/2019/05/3…
This section of the e-mail is interesting in a host of ways. First, it's moving how much love Miller (the heir to a 162-year old timber fortune who attended Grinnell in Iowa and then Columbia Business School in NYC) has for Oregonians in their "dusty neighborhoods."
The "multi-millionaire heir who is a man of the people" has kind of become "a thing" in American politics these days, so it makes sense for Miller to push those buttons.
One of the things that really angers Miller (who has given untold millions to influence Oregon politics) is the way "special-interest donors" distort the legislative process. I mean, come on now. This isn't even trying to pass the smell test.
The very pro-business Miller is calling for a boycott of the many Oregon businesses that signed on to the Oregon Business for Climate group that worked on HB2020. He says he's most concerned for "everyday Oregonians" who will be hurt by the bill. Like the 60 ppl he just laid off?
It appears that some companies have already caved to this pressure and have pulled their support for HB2020.
Given that this Timber Unity group is only 3 weeks old and it had seemed like the bill was sure to pass...it would seem logical to surmise that there's a connection between Miller's politicking (in association with his employees) and the death of HB2020.
All of this anti-HB2020 activism has been carried out through the "normal" channels of American politics. Citizens formed a pressure group, special-interests donated funds to support politics favorable to them, coordinated protests happened at the Capitol. Standard stuff.
But what has *not* occurred is a shift in Oregonians' opinions about climate change. The bill passed the house 36-24. The committee that crafted it included a Republican from Springfield who supported the bill. ktvz.com/news/oregon-ho…
Based on what I know, it looks like a very wealthy CEO did what he's been doing for decades. He used his substantial wealth and clout, in coordination with ordinary citizens who organized on social media, to bring enough pressure to bear to kill a bill that hurt his bottom line.
The ties between these actions in civil society (forming of a pressure-group, expenditures of money by a special interest) and the 11 GOP senators who fled the state remain to be uncovered.
Likewise, the behind the scenes stuff that led Senate President Peter Courtney to unilaterally pull the bill remains to be uncovered. Did formerly on-board businesses pull out at the last minute? Did some D Senators get cold feet in response to the protests?
I have no doubt that the 37,000 people who joined the Timber Unity FB page over the past 3 weeks have authentic reasons for opposing HB2020. Looking at the member list, it does not look like it's Russian bots or anything like that. They are real Oregonians.
That said, Oregon's political system underwent a multi-year process to write up a bill that would address climate change. It was about to pass. The majority of Oregonians supported it. And then the bill was killed.
Unroll @threadreaderapp
@threadreaderapp Here's the origins story of Timber Unity as told by the people who founded it. facebook.com/groups/3412935…
@threadreaderapp The group is now a non-profit that sells branded swag on its website to support its activities. Given that the seed money for their PAC came from the CEO of Stimson Lumber...it's clear that "profit" has *something* to do with this movement, tho not for the rank-and-file folks.
@threadreaderapp Yesterday's protest in Salem has been written up in a few national venues. Here's a piece in Rolling Stone. rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
@threadreaderapp And here's a piece from the Daily Kos. dailykos.com/stories/2019/6…
@threadreaderapp For those interested in a deep dive on Oregon's now-dead climate bill, here's a smart analysis by @drvox. vox.com/energy-and-env…
