Members of the Oregon Legislature’s emergency board voted Friday to hire four specialists to expedite environmental permitting for the chip industry, a key priority of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown.
The vote was 12 to 7, strictly on party lines, as Republicans lamented Oregon’s overall pace of environmental review and objected to special treatment for any one industry.
“There’s no question that permitting needs to be sped up, but it needs to be sped up for others as well,” said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend. Noting that Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Whitman abruptly resigned Thursday, Knopp said the agency “seems to be unaccountable and in disarray.”
A bipartisan task force of Oregon business and government leaders reported last month that three large chipmakers are considering multibillion-dollar investments in Oregon. The task force warned that a shortage of industrial land in the Portland area, and a cumbersome regulatory climate, could derail those projects.
The Legislature’s emergency board meets between sessions to allocate funding for immediate needs. Brown’s request may suggest that one or more chipmakers could decide on whether to build in Oregon within the next few months, before the Legislature would have time to act in the session that begins early next year.
Semiconductor research and manufacturing is one of Oregon’s major industries, accounting for roughly half its exports and billions of dollars in annual investment. But a string of chipmakers bypassed Oregon over the past few years when choosing sites for new projects.
The governor and Oregon civic boosters are hoping to revitalize the sector and capture a share of $54 billion in CHIPS Act funding Congress approved earlier this summer. Brown said Wednesday that she is drawing $1 million from a strategic reserve fund to accelerate land readiness for chip factories.
The $357,000 in funding approved Friday would pay for only six to nine months for each new position. Brown said this week she’s preparing a broader package of proposals to attract the chip industry that she wants the Legislature to consider on “day one” of the upcoming session.
Since Brown is barred from seeking re-election this fall by Oregon term limits, the fate of those proposals will depend to some degree on whether the next governor shares her goals. And Friday’s party-line vote suggests Oregon Republicans may not see the same urgency that Brown does in improving the state’s appeal to chipmakers.
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | 503-294-7699 | Twitter: @rogoway |
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