Climate Change News: Republican State Senators In Oregon On The Run Over Cap-and-Trade Bill

Eleven Oregon Republican state have run away after the Democratic majority in the state introduced climate cap-and-trade legislation. The Republicans walked out of the Capitol building in Salem on Thursday.

Gov. Katie Brown, a Democrat, authorized Oregon state troopers to search for the senators and bring them back.

"It would have been historic for Oregon, historic for the country and frankly, historic for the world," Brown said. "Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have failed to show up and failed to do their jobs."

The senators are possibly in neighboring Idaho, where police are not authorized to search for them.

The senators believe they are being bullied by the Democratic majority into a vote on the climate change bill. They instead want to see a statewide referendum on the topic as they believe businesses in the rural part of the state will be harmed by the bill.

"Protesting cap-and-trade by walking out today represents our constituency and exactly how we should be doing our job," Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschinger Jr. said in a statement. "We have endured threats of arrest, fines, and pulling community funds from the governor, Senate President and majority leader. We will not stand by and be bullied by the majority party any longer."

Another Republican lawmaker, Brian Boquist, said he was "not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon."

The lawmakers will be fined $500 for each day they are absent.

On the national level, Republicans have also shied away from climate change. President Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.

Democrats on the federal level have introduced legislation to combat climate change, such as the Green New Deal sponsored by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and by Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.