CUB Conference Preview: Once-in-a-Century Solutions for Customers
Posted on September 15, 2020 by Samuel Pastrick
Tags, Energy, Conference & Events
CUB is hosting our tenth annual policy conference, Finding Hope: Improving Our Energy Systems in the Age of COVID-19 on October 16 from 9:30am – 2:40pm. Today we are pleased to offer a sneak preview of the second morning panel on the day’s agenda, A Once-in-a-Century Crisis Requires Once-In-A-Century Solutions For Customers.
The 2020 conference was already going to be different than past years. Due to the pandemic, we decided early on to move the program entirely online. Unprecedented in terms of scope and intensity, the wildfires currently burning across Oregon and throughout the West have introduced a new dynamic. From all of us at CUB: Our hearts go out to those affected.
Wildfires and COVID-19 disproportionately harm our most vulnerable communities – those least positioned for a full recovery. COVID-19 has, in not just Oregon but across the United States, hit Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color; low-income families; and the elderly the hardest. The same is true for the horrific fires since so many devasted communities are home to low-income and elderly residents. The hazardous air engulfing Oregon and much of the West especially affects frontline workers and those living in poorly weatherized housing, or without homes at all.
In early June, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) opened an investigation to explore COVID-19’s disproportionate impacts on regulated utility customers and develop a policy response. CUB authored a comprehensive plan focused on electric utility customers to help frame the PUC’s investigation. With sustained input from CUB; other customer-focused nonprofit groups like Community Action Partnership of Oregon (CAPO), Northwest Energy Coalition, and Verde; and utilities, the PUC will soon reach a decision on how Oregon and regulated utilities must protect customers in light of the pandemic. The PUC’s decision holds greater weight due to the devasting wildfires.
Of course, Oregon isn’t the only state to contemplate comprehensive protections for utility customers in response to COVID-19. The late morning conference panel will primarily explore the connection between utility services and economic security through the lens of Oregon and other states’ policy responses.
Has Oregon met the challenge of protecting customers in the initial aftermath of these crises with agility and innovation? Where and why have we failed and succeeded? Given the likelihood of slow recovery, how long will economic security measures be needed? Are we sufficiently prepared to respond to the immediate impacts of the next crisis?
To help answer these questions, we’ve assembled an expert panel that includes Dr. Holmes Hummel, Founder of Clean Energy Works (not to be confused with Clean Energy Works Oregon); Karen Lusson, Staff Attorney for the National Consumer Law Center; and Keith Kueny, Energy Policy Coordinator for CAPO.
This is the first in a series of upcoming blog updates that will preview each of the 2020 CUB Conference’s panel discussions. Stay tuned for more, and visit the conference homepage for details on the day’s agenda and to register! We encourage readers to register before 5pm on Monday September 28 to take advantage of Early Bird pricing. Follow updates on Twitter at #CUBCon20, and sign up for our email list to get ongoing updates in your inbox!
CUB is grateful to our generous sponsors whose support makes the CUB conference possible, particularly Polar Bear sponsors NW Natural and Portland General Electric, Grizzly Bear sponsor Avista, and Media Sponsor Clearing Up.
We hope you can join us for this year’s CUB Policy Conference. And, once again, our hearts go out to all those affected this year by two once-in-a-century crises.
To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
09/05/22 | 0 Comments | CUB Conference Preview: Once-in-a-Century Solutions for Customers