At a meeting with members of the Oregon manufacturing industry Governor Kitzhaber introduced SB 766, which creates new legislation to designate regionally significant industrial areas. Click here to read the draft bill. The Governor also discussed his progress report on several Job Creation Action Items. The Governor’s industrial lands bill and these Action Items also fulfill many of the job creation initiatives of the Oregon Business Plan. They include:
- Conducting energy audits on 500 Oregon schools
- Ensuring that EPA regulation of biomass reflects the beneficial carbon profile of woody biomass in the Northwest
- Including preference for biomass boilers in school retrofit programs
- Setting regular meetings with key members of the manufacturing community and focusing on regular communication with the Oregon business clusters
- Taking administrative action to integrate Oregon’s On-the-Job Training & Career Readiness Certificate programs to prepare them for scale-up
- Funding the Oregon Innovation Council
- Revamping the Oregon Growth Account.
Read the Governor’s report here.
