Announcing CUB’s 2019 Consumer Champion: Representative Pam Marsh

CUB is pleased to announce Oregon State Representative Pam Marsh as our 2019 Consumer Champion. CUB will officially honor Rep. Marsh with the award at our ninth annual Energy Policy conference, Clean Energy Communities / Reliable Systems on Friday November 8 at the Downtown Portland Hilton, where she is also the closing keynote speaker.

Rep. Marsh was first elected to House District 5 in southern Oregon in November 2016 and reelected in 2018. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the House Committee on Revenue, and as a member of the House Committee on Economic Development and Trade, the Joint Committee on Tax Expenditures, the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on General Government, and the Joint Committee on Information Management and Technology.

During the 2019 legislative session, she brought rural community expertise to the Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction, which nearly ushered in passage of the Clean Energy Jobs legislation. She is also a member of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council (OBAC) and the Oregon Retirement Savings Board (OregonSaves).

Prior to joining the Oregon Legislature, Rep. Marsh served on the Ashland City Council for four years, chaired the Planning Commission, and played a leadership role on the Ashland Charter Review Committee. Her role on OBAC and experience managing a rural business motivates and focuses her efforts to close Oregon’s digital divide.

As a rural legislator from a district that is deeply rooted in both agriculture and forestry, and as a member of the Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response, Rep. Marsh emphasizes local solutions to address climate change such as energy efficiency investments, reestablishing forest resilience, and maintaining adequate water supplies.

Rep. Marsh is a clear leader in Salem at the intersection of energy and information/communications technology (ICT) policy advocacy. Her leadership is of vital importance to CUB given that our work increasingly fits squarely between these two policy worlds, reflecting the extent to which “digitalization” drives today’s public policy. Because Rep. Marsh is Oregon’s foremost policy maker focused on this intersectional dynamic and champions Oregon utility consumers on both energy and ICT legislative efforts, CUB is honored to recognize Rep. Marsh as our 2019 Consumer Champion and support her vital policy vision.

• After co-facilitating the Clean Energy Jobs Environmental Justice and Just Transition work group in advance of the 2018 session, Rep. Marsh was a perfect choice to participate on a subsequent low-income issue work group. That group’s acknowledgement of ICT equity is largely due to her persistence that low-income energy utility customers may be further left behind without appropriate attention paid to improving ICT policy outcomes.
• Rep. Marsh was a consumer champion on the 2019 Joint Carbon Reduction Committee. Her speech on the House Floor for HB 2020 was a highlight of that day.
• Her continued work on housing stability and affordability by way of improved efficiency measures through HB 3094 – or the home “Weatherization, Retrofit, and Affordability Program” – is yet another instance of exemplary consumer advocacy, particularly for low-and moderate-income Oregonians.
• During the 2019 legislative session, Rep. Marsh sponsored two bills to facilitate advanced communication services for un-and-underserved areas of our state. The first measure, HB 2173, created a state Broadband Office located in Business Oregon to serve as a policy and planning hub. Had it passed, the second piece of the legislative strategy, HB 2184, would have funded both the Broadband Office and broadband planning and infrastructure development. Rep. Marsh will re-introduce the concept during the 2020 legislative session as the Rural Telecommunications Investment Act.

Ultimately, Rep. Marsh is a consumer champion due to her understanding of and active work to improve energy and ICT policy interconnections. CUB congratulates and thanks her for her tireless commitment to advancing this work on behalf of Oregon’s utility consumers.

Representative Marsh is in good company as our 2019 honoree: past Consumer Champion award recipients include founding Executive Director of the Energy Trust of Oregon, Margie Harris, Oregon Senator and former Oregon Public Utility Commissioner, Lee Beyer, and most recently the Jackson County Fuel Committee.

Register today for the CUB Conference to join us in person in congratulating Rep. Marsh and hearing her keynote remarks, along with a variety of engaging panel discussions. (Bonus points, or savings rather, if you register by our Early Bird deadline: Friday October 11!) Sign up for the CUB email list to receive updates about this conference, and follow conference news on Twitter at #CUBCon19. We look forward to seeing you there!

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