Opponents of Climate Protection Program Ask Court to Halt Oregon’s Controversial Emissions Reduction Regulation

By Nigel Jaquiss
April 16, 2026

A broad coalition of business, utility and labor groups filed a lawsuit April 16 in the Oregon Court of Appeals, seeking to block implementation of the Climate Protection Program, the state’s emissions reduction plan.

In their lawsuit, attorneys for the more than two dozen plaintiffs, including manufacturers, trade associations, labor unions, and suppliers of natural gas and propane, ask the court to “decide whether this sweeping regulatory program oversteps the Environmental Quality Commission’s limited authority under Oregon law.”

The Climate Protection Program aims to reduce carbon emissions from the burning of transportation fuels, propane and natural gas. The program’s goals are to reduce emissions 50% from a 2017–19 baseline by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs say their goal is “to stop this unauthorized and unaffordable regulatory program before it does further irreversible damage to the State’s economy and the financial well-being of millions of Oregonians.”

The lawsuit cites a recent OJP story that reported objections to the price of carbon set by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; that the largest users of natural gas in the state, electric utilities, are not regulated by the CPP; and that the money that customer groups expect the program to raise will be allocated to nonprofits rather than state agencies.

In an accompanying 29-page motion to expedite the case, the law firms for the plaintiffs, Baker Botts LLP of Houston and Snell & Wilmer of Portland, break from often dry legalese: “The Oregon Climate Protection Program is a trainwreck in motion.”

Gov. Kate Brown enacted the Climate Protection Program by executive order in 2020. She did so after Republican lawmakers walked out of the Capitol in 2019 and 2020 to block passage of climate legislation that Democrats had spent more than a decade trying to pass.

Then, after DEQ completed rulemaking for the executive order, the state’s three natural gas suppliers—NW Natural, Avista, and Cascade Natural Gas—sued in 2022 to block implementation of the program, challenging the state’s authority to enact it.

The Oregon Court of Appeals did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit but found the rulemaking process flawed. DEQ wrote new rules, which went into effect last year. Opponents say in the lawsuit that the state’s new version of the program is also flawed.

“The new rule sticks with an essentially similar structure to the original iteration, fails to address the substantive legal flaws, and includes no concrete protections for Oregonians against the exorbitant increases in energy costs and associated affordability impacts this rule will produce,” the lawsuit says, citing OJP’s reporting that DEQ failed to produce an estimate of how much the program will cost individuals and companies.

Accompanying the lawsuit are 134 pages of declarations of support from business, trade association and labor groups in every corner of the state.

Many are trade associations, but other supporters are individual businesses, such as Zuber & Sons Logging in Curry County. In his declaration, manager partner Bruce Zuber wrote that the Climate Protection Program puts his company at a competitive disadvantage to loggers in other states and makes demands for fuel-switching that are unrealistic.

“No alternative (noncarbon) fuels or power technology are foreseen to become economically or operationally available for Zuber’s rural forest applications in the foreseeable future before 2040 or 2050,” Zuber said.

Others focused on what they say is a devastating impact on the state’s economy.

W. Paul Elder of the plumbers and pipefitters union UA Local 290 said in his declaration: “Oregonians are already struggling under the weight of inflation, including a lack of affordable housing and rising unemployment. The current program harms every consumer and every layer of business in Oregon. Without action, it will cost our state thousands of good paying, family-wage jobs.”

The Oregon Department of Justice, which represents state agencies in court, does not typically comment on pending litigation.